Author Talk: Masatsugu Ono

Masatugo Ono, winner of Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize (2014), is  professor of modern Francophone literature at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.  Lions Cross Point is his first full-length novel published in English.  The stunning work of fiction centers on Takeru, an introverted 10-year old who is struggling to overcome trauma as he is lifted up by a few kind-hearted new friends in his mother’s hometown.  Along the way, Takeru also encounters a ghost who accompanies him on his journey of healing and self-discovery.

“Lion Cross Point is a novel of intersections: of memory and dream, past and future, rural and urban, of innocence and tragedy. Masatsugu Ono’s poignant tale spins out in a child-driven stream of consciousness, unwinding from a series of shrouded traumatic events” (Kris Kosaka, The Japan Times).