Honeybees and Distant Thunder

Riku Onda, Philip Gabriel (trans.)

Honeybees and Distant Thunder
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Country
United Kingdom
Published
4 May 2023
Pages
360
ISBN
9780857527950

Honeybees and Distant Thunder

Riku Onda, Philip Gabriel (trans.)

The million-copy award-winning Japanese bestseller

In a small coastal town just a stone’s throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competiton is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three students will experience some of the most joyous - and painful - moments of their lives. Though they don’t know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others, for ever.

Aya is a piano genius, well, she was, until she ran away from the stage and vanished; will Makun, tall and talented in every way, bring her back? Or will it be child of nature, Jin, a pianist without a piano, who carries the sound of his father’s bees wherever he goes? Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?

Tender, cruel, compelling, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry. Most of all, it shows how three young people reconcile with the highs and lows of what it means to truly be a friend.

Review

Honeybees and Distant Thunder introduces an ensemble cast on the cusp of the internationally acclaimed, triennial Yoshigae International Piano Competition. The story launches with an extraordinary audition in Paris by a previously unknown pianist, Jin Kazama, who arrives with a letter of recommendation from one of the classical music world’s most revered maestros. The maestro died some months earlier, but it’s clear from the letter that he had a plan for Jin, who works with his father as a beekeeper, and anticipated the wildly divergent reactions Jin’s performances would elicit. The three judges of the Paris auditions – two awestruck, one horrified – agree, somewhat mischievously, and only after an intense debate, that Jin should progress to the competition.

The controversy carries over from Paris to the competition itself, just outside Tokyo. The stakes are high for judges and competitors alike. Former child prodigy Aya Eiden, who ran from her last recital (after a perfect rehearsal) at age 13, has been persuaded to return to the stage at 20. Akashi Takashima has sacrificed sleep for over a year to practice in between his responsibilities at home and his job at a music shop. At 28, he feels this is his last chance to make something of his musical ambitions. Meanwhile, Masaru Carlos Levi Anatole, the charming protégé of one of the judges, is another musical genius and a leading contender, one with a surprising, and possibly fateful, connection to another entrant.

The book follows the structure of the two-week competition: with three rounds and one winner, this is a novel that will have your stomach in knots with suspense. It’s an intense world, one in which issues of class and culture, talent and devotion, loyalty and rivalry seem tightly bound to creativity and nature. The characters – judges, pianists, supporters and mentors – are as colourful as the music Riku Onda so artfully evokes. You don’t have to care about classical music to enjoy this book any more than you need to know a thing about any kind of football to appreciate Friday Night Lights or Ted Lasso, but for readers who do love classical music there will be additional rewards.

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