Thank you so much @serpentstail for helping me in my quest to read lots of the International Man Booker longlist! While The Pine Islands wasn’t exactly the right read for me, I have HUGE respect for the translator Jen Calleja for tackling this one, and the other translators undoubtedly involved, because not only was it translated from German to English, but also haikus translated I presume from Japanese to German to English - what a feat!
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A quiet and understated novel, The Pine Islands follows Gilbert, a lecturer who is researching the symbolism behind beards, who wakes up one morning convinced that his wife cheated on him and so flees inexplicably to Japan. There, he meets a suicidal young man named Yosa, and together they embark upon a pilgrimage to the Pine Islands, following in the footsteps of a Japanese philosopher and poet.
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The translation was beautifully done, and I appreciated many of the profound passages, but ultimately there was just too much philosophy and existential musings in this one for my tastes. I do love quiet novels, but this one was just a bit too quiet and I often struggled to grasp exactly what point was trying to be made - if any.
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There also seems to be a trend with the International Man Booker, as the first two I read (this and Celestial Bodies) draw heavily on the poetry, in this case Japanese poetry in the form of haikus. Poetry and philosophy are just not my fortes, but I know they are a lot of people’s jam, so I still would recommend this novel as there was nothing *wrong* with it, it simply wasn’t for me!