In 1958, a diary is found in a cave on the small Japanese island of Hatoma. Alongside it are the remains of three people.
The journal reveals the story of Hiromi, a sixteen-year-old girl who’d grown up in the United States before living in Japan in the midst of World War II. One day, while collecting star sand—tiny star-shaped fossils—Hiromi finds two army deserters hiding in the seaside cavern—one American, one Japanese. The soldiers don’t speak the same language, but they’ve reached an agreement based on a shared hope: to cause no more harm and survive. Hiromi resolves to care for the men—feeding them and nursing their ailments—despite the risk that, if caught, she’ll die alongside them as a traitor. But when a fourth person joins in on their secret, they must face a threat from within. The diary abruptly ends, leaving everyone’s fate a mystery.
Decades later, in 2011, a young female university student decides to finally determine who died in that cave and who lived. Her search will lead her to the lone survivor—and bring closure to a gripping tale of heroism at a time when committing to peace was the most dangerous act of all.

Star Sand

Literature & Fiction

Pulvers, Roger

Literary

Amazon Crossing

The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn: a novel, with an introduction (The Life of Lafcadio Hearn)

Balestier Press

"Roger has fearlessly thrown himself into the whirlpool of cross-culturalism. His life reads like an adventure story."--Ryuichi Sakamoto The Unmaking of an American is an engaging and entertaining cross-cultural memoir spanning decades of dramatic history on four continents. Author, playwright, translator, journalist, theater and film director Roger Pulvers explores the nature of memory through life connections created from people and places, both past and present. Born into a Jewish American family in New York and raised in Los Angeles, Roger Pulvers journeyed outside the U.S. for the first time in 1964, when he visited the Soviet Union, returning there the following year and heading to Poland in 1966. In 1967, he moved to Japan, forming a tie to that country that has lasted more than half a century. Pulvers became an Australian citizen in 1976 and has chronicled life--political, social and cultural--in those countries in hundreds of articles and essays, as well as works of fiction. "No memory, however trivial and banal, is unimportant if it remains with you; no feeling that was once felt cannot be retrieved when you feel the absolute need to access it. And it is our memories that order the chaotic conglomeration of experience and sentiment that make up our selves." "I drifted from the United States to Eastern Europe to Japan and then to Australia. This movement in itself was no different from that of hundreds of millions of people who have migrated from one country to another. The only anomalous feature of my choices is that not many people leave the "land of golden opportunity" for good; not many choose to opt out of their tie to "the home of the free." "You are taking a step. But it is not leading you in a straight line. Each step reminds you that your life is taking a turn, however imperceptible, and each turn represents a moment in the present where the future can be glimpsed simultaneously. What is the direction of these stepping-stones? Where are they leading you? It is impossible to tell. They lead nowhere, and they seem to come back to the place you were before."

The Unmaking of an American

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Originally published in Japanese under the title If There Were No Japan: A Cultural Memoir, this book was acclaimed for its insights into Japanese life, bringing together aspects of history, culture and everyday life to paint an original and revealing portrait of the Japanese people and the pressing issues facing them today. During his decades of passionate engagement with Japan, Pulvers became close friends with many of the most gifted writers, artists, filmmakers, actors and journalists in the country. Whether delving into ancient traditions or providing vivid accounts of contemporary customs, analyzing characters in Japanese fiction or recounting personal encounters with individuals, the author illuminates those inventive elements that have made Japanese culture and design the envy of the world--and that signal a way forward through the twenty-first century. "Roger Pulvers's life reads like an adventure story. His recollections of life in Japan in the 1960s are bound to become a part of Japan's national heritage."-Ryuichi Sakamoto, composer and musician "This book is a delight. Few Japanese intellectuals have absorbed Japanese culture to the extent that Pulvers has. If there were no Pulvers, Japan would be a much less interesting country!"-Seigo Matsuoka, author and editor "Roger Pulvers ... is a master at transcending borders. He builds a convincing case for Japan as an indispensable presence on the world stage." -Mitsuyoshi Numano, author and professor at the University of Tokyo "Roger Pulvers delves into and examines values that the Japanese have lost sight of. His notion that there is much diversity in Japan refutes the conventional wisdom with great persuasiveness." -Yoshiharu Fukuhara, Honorary Chairman of Shiseido

My Japan: A Cultural Memoir

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Roger Pulvers has been writing fiction set in Japan for over fifty years. Now, for the first time, a collection of his very best short stories has been brought together in a single volume. Some of these stories, like the one that gives the collection its title, The Charter tells the story of a man who has chartered a boat on Tokyo's Sumida River. He is celebrating his eightieth birthday and has invited his entire family to celebrate with him. But, curiously, it is a little girl engaging with him on the deck who comes to symbolize the real love that seems absent in his 'loved ones'. The two make a promise to each other there and then that represents another kind of 'charter'. The great variety of characters encountered in these poignant and often highly humourous stories include a little boy who, it seems, will stop at nothing to get his feuding parents together again; a young woman who reconnects with an ancestor and finds love in the process; a beautiful Japanese singer who goes to Las Vegas to make it big time; a Japanese salaryman who, on an impulse, travels to Holland in search of Vermeer and loses himself instead; a naïve American who falls for a young Japanese woman, only to have to witness her modelling in the nude for a dissolute artist he despises; two young women - one Japanese, the other Indonesian - who discover that they have the same father ... and other colourful characters that give great insight into contemporary Japanese life.

The Charter: And Thirteen Other Stories about Japan

United States

Tokyo Performance is set in the pre-internet age, brilliantly captures the zeitgeist of Japan at the time. In this riveting, entertaining and wholly poignant tale, a Japanese celebrity receives a phone call while live on air that will change his life forever. Nori, a high profile Tokyo-based celebrity chef with his own weekly television show, is famous and beloved and he knows it - but he's about to put in his strangest performance. Award-winning writer, playwright and film director, Roger Pulvers, brings his love and deep fascination for Japanese culture to Tokyo Performance, a funny and, at times, tragic story, which explores the cost of fame. Red Circle Minis: Original, Short and Compelling Reads Tokyo Performance is part of Red Circle Minis, a series of short captivating books by Japan's finest contemporary writers that brings the narratives and voices of Japan together as never before. Each book is a first edition written specifically for the series and is being published in English first.

Tokyo Performance (Red Circle Minis)

Red Circle

Author, playwright, translator, theater and film director Roger Pulvers has translated and adapted one of world theater's greatest comic classics, Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector. This version for two actors, here in print for the first time, has been produced in Japan and Australia to great acclaim. Roger Pulvers writes in his Foreword ... "The Government Inspector for Two Actors is a theatrical challenge to actors and staff, especially costume designer and stage manager. It requires ultra-quick changes. The challenge lies not only in getting the actor into the right costume at the right time, but also for the actors to transform themselves instantaneously from one character to another. But the script was constructed with all this in mind from the beginning. Its premise is that you can be anybody you want to be, so long as you can convince others of it. In that sense The Government Inspector for Two Actors is about the theater itself as much as it is about the true and false faces of our society." "A sharp satire made for today" Yomiuri Shimbun"Genius and hilarity" The Canberra Times"Gogol for two superb" The Australian"For comedy, this is as good as it gets" Canberra City News"A revelation ... the integrity of Gogol's message about corrupt bureaucracy remains alive and well" Brisbane Courier Mail"Satire good as gold" Sun Herald"It's a farce, and a very funny one at that" Sunday Telegraph"Be astounded that this old play can resonate today and that it is hilariously funny" Daily Telegraph"The comedy stakes are raised through Roger Pulvers' terrific adaptation for two actors" Sydney Morning Herald

The Government Inspector for Two Actors: Translated from the original play by Nikolai Gogol, and adapted for two actors

Dramas & Plays

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Books by Pulvers, Roger