‘In beautifully sparse prose, The Pachinko Parlour is a contemplation on language, history and trauma and how, in spite of the ineffable past, we eventually come to console one another.’
Yan Ge, author of The Strange Beasts of China
‘In prose as softly elegiac as it is laser-sighted, Elisa Shua Dusapin conjures up a Tokyo that is less mighty metropolis than boundless night sky, twinkling and pulsing with interlocking constellations of longing. A haunting exploration of the impossible quest to belong, and the convoluted, glistening paths it carries us down.’
Polly Barton, author of Fifty Sounds
‘The Pachinko Parlour is a quietly melancholic, softly textured and roundly gorgeous novel about identity and alienation. It will stay with me for a long time.’
Lara Williams, author of The Odyssey and Supper Club
‘A melancholic exploration of identity and belonging, The Pachinko Parlour is a beautifully told story of one woman trying to tether herself to something.’
Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions
‘An exquisite, cinematic novel not afraid of subtlety. I looked forward to reading it at night, to spending time in Elisa Shua Dusapin’s Tokyo, and in her pleasing sentences, which I can still hear in my mind.’
Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy and A Horse at Night
‘Readers who know Winter in Sokcho will find much that is familiar … But The Pachinko Parlour is darker and even more ambiguous … The original French has been cleanly rendered in English by Aneesa Abbas Higgins … Higgins has impressively maintained Dusapin’s unique voice.’
Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books
‘[The Pachinko Parlour] drifts with delicate ennui through a Japanese summer … [Dusapin muses] on identity and culture, abandonment and alienation, the power of language to connect and divide, as the surreal disorientations of the Japanese capital come vividly to life.’
The Sydney Morning Herald
‘This economical little novella examines the different reasons people get stuck. Sometimes trauma prevents us from moving forward, and sometimes it’s just the paralysing decision-making of adulthood … At less than 200 pages, Elisa Shua Dusapin’s powerful follow-up to the award-winning Winter in Sokcho is a book you’ll be thinking about for much longer than it’ll take you to read.’
Rebecca Crisp, Readings
‘A captivating exploration of identity and unspoken histories.’
Tatler
‘Pleasantly atmospheric; absorbing in their attention to detail and the beauty of the mundane.’
i-D
‘This tale of shared history and identity is written in prose that crackles with intelligence and imagination.’
ES Magazine
‘Brooding and seductive in its telling, The Pachinko Parlour is the highly anticipated second novel by Elisa Shua Dusapin, the author of the bestselling Winter in Sokcho … Translated beautifully from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins … The Pachinko Parlour is the ultimate exploration of identity and otherness … The Pachinko Parlour’s beauty lies in its ability to subtly and artfully capture the surrounding architecture, inhabitants, and mood, in a way that speaks for the protagonist’s mind, body and soul … Holding the quietude of Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami without the ‘burning’, Dusapin is a captivating new female voice whose work is perfectly rendered and lingers long after the last page is read.’
Tammy Moir, Happy Mag
‘Another beautifully written book which has been excellently translated, a joy to read. Shua Dusapin writes with intelligence and with a deep understanding of what it is to be human. Her writing evocatively reflects on ageing, culture, belonging … The writing has a sense of innocence that is peaceful yet confident; vignettes of the ordinary that are so revealing.’
Reading, Writing and Riesling
‘Immersive … the translation is flawless.’
Theresa Smith Writes
‘Every one of Dusapin’s sentences brims with purpose and intention, and her restraint only makes for a read that is all the more transportive. The Pachinko Parlour is one to be read and enjoyed over one stuffy afternoon, in a quiet room, with a cold drink slowly sweating condensation.’
Annie Junor, RMITV
Praise for Winter in Sokcho:
‘Enigmatic, beguiling … This finely crafted debut explores topics of identity and heredity in compelling fashion. In its aimless, outsider protagonist there are echoes of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.’
Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times
Praise for Winter in Sokcho:
‘This irresistible and spare novel sketches with exquisite depth a season of searching for both a French Korean woman and a French visitor … the brevity and pacing of its vignettes are also reminiscent of comics … Dusapin's beguiling work resembles a vibrant graphic novel, sans pictures … This irresistible and spare novel sketches with exquisite depth a season of searching for both a French Korean woman and a French visitor.’
Dave Wheeler, Shelf Awareness
Praise for Winter in Sokcho:
‘[A] compact first novel … Dusapin’s terse sentences are at times staggeringly beautiful, their immediacy sharply and precisely rendered from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins … Oiled with a brooding tension that never dissipates or resolves, Winter in Sokcho is a noirish cold sweat of a book.’
Catherine Taylor, The Guardian
