First published 2024
This collection presents three decades of correspondence between two literary expatriates who found each other across continents. Shirley Hazzard left Australia as a teenager and built her writing career between New York and Italy. Donald Keene abandoned his American roots to become a leading authority on Japanese literature and culture. Their friendship began in the late 1970s after losing a mutual friend. The letters reveal two minds shaped by displacement and reinvention. Hazzard writes of her unconventional path to literary recognition without formal education. Keene reflects on his transformation from wartime Navy intelligence officer to devoted student of Japan, where he earned deep respect. Their exchanges weave together observations on literature, culture, and the experience of creating new identities in adopted homelands. The correspondence captures a disappearing world of literary conversation and intellectual friendship. These letters illuminate how two people from different backgrounds discovered shared values and perspectives that sustained a remarkable connection across decades.
Genres: literary-fiction, friendship, 20th-century, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Australia, Italy, Japan, New York
Period: Late 1970s
224 pages · Hardcover · Columbia University Press