LAMENT IN THE NIGHT by Shōson Nagahara (SOLD OUT)

Los Angeles, 1925. A young day laborer named Shōson Nagahara sees his first novella printed by a Japanese-language publisher in Little Tokyo. Los Angeles, 2012. A tenacious translator and a local press present that very same work to English readers for the first time.

LAMENT IN THE NIGHT collects two remarkable novellas. One follows an itinerant day laborer as he prowls the back alleys and bathhouses of Los Angeles, looking for a meal, a job, or just someone to hold onto. The second follows a young mother working her way through bars and nightclubs after being abandoned by her husband. Written in a deadpan tone that’s both evocative and precise, this 1920s naturalist noir opens up a realm that’s been woefully underpublished and unexplored: the literary heritage of non-English-speaking immigrants in America.