My Falling Down House

Recipient of a Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Award. 'My Falling Down House is a masterpiece' - Anne Janowitz. 'This is a novel for anyone who has had a setback in life; for anyone who ever thought of escaping reality and retreating into the shadowy imagination. A beautiful exploration of identity by a hugely talented writer.' - Eluned Gramich Set in contemporary Japan... it simultaneously speaks to contemporary globalizing society at large. A remarkable achievement.' - Sho Konishi, Professor in Modern Japanese History, University of Oxford. Having lost his job and his home, Takeo Tanaka, a young Japanese man, takes refuge in a dilapidated wood and paper house. He sets himself projects in an attempt to hold on to his sanity and as recompense for trespassing and dwelling in a house for which he makes no payment. But with only a cat and a cello for company, his ability to distinguish between real and imagined events is soon deeply challenged, and he is ultimately held captive by his own paralysing suspicion of the outside world. His fears and failing health keep him inside the house through four testing seasons, and he is driven to the edge of insanity as he pushes his creative abilities to keep himself occupied and retain his self-respect. He keeps notebooks, and attempts to map out the renovation work required on the house, constantly doubting his abilities but pushing his way through, endlessly searching for solutions. Building what he can out of the things he discovers inside the house, he permits his mind free reign to create and to mend.

Jayne Joso is a British novelist, playwright, writer and artist. Having lived and worked in Japan, China and Kenya she now lives in the UK. Her play China's Smile enjoyed a long theatre run and was later televised. Her children's book How Do You Feel? was published in Japan and has been reprinted numerous times. In 2012, she was awarded the Coracle International Writer's Residency in Ireland. Her first novel, Soothing Music for Stray Cats (2009, Alcemi) explores the lives of disaffected city dwellers, and was heralded as 'the debut of a distinctive voice in contemporary British Fiction' by social historian Joe Moran; with the Times Literary Supplement predicting that it 'may emerge as one of the great, eccentric London novels'. Her second novel, Perfect Architect (2011, Alcemi), draws on Joso's interest in architectural and psychological space.