The Snow Kimono - Softcover

'From Algiers to Tokyo, Henshaw creates indelible images. Just as the two men get caught up in one another's stories, so too can the reader almost feel the cold on the road down a snowy mountain in Japan or smell the smoke-stained remains of a bombed-out house on the Mediterranean...Henshaw has written an intriguing contemplation on the nature of storytelling itself.'--Booklist Online

'Henshaw creates a world of psychological complexity and emotional subtlety in a story that moves from Paris to Japan and back again...Henshaw's prose shimmers as his narrative becomes ever more nuanced, complex, and misleading.'--Kirkus Reviews

'Casts a spell from the start...A highly original book full of small sensations with the bonus of being a joy to read.'--Shots Magazine, UK

'A novel of exquisite beauty.'--The Times [UK]

'A superb read.'--Bookmooch

'Henshaw's prose [is] luminous and crisp, like the snowy countryside of Japan or the barren lanes of Algiers, and the effect is instead trancelike. As the stories fold inside one another like poetic Russian dolls, I'm drawn closer to the heart of it all.'--Saturday Paper

'Gripping...Like a Japanese puzzle, prized for their infinite solutions and depth of revelation, each chapter builds on the one before, unfolding through levels of story to unpack deeper and deeper truths...Henshaw's ability to combine such cultural and aesthetic diversity in his fiction is not only an example of what a period of dedicated study can do, but a marker of his ability as a writer.'--Guardian Australia

'A work of extraordinary subtlety, excitement and intelligence...one thing is certain, The Snow Kimono stands out as an extraordinary, clever and exquisitely executed fiction.'--The Hoopla

'A confident, complex, lucid and engrossing performance that will make readers glad Henshaw is back...With agile intelligence, with boldness in what he has imagined and tight control over how it is developed, Henshaw has announced triumphantly that he is no longer a ghost on the Australian literary scene, but one of its most substantial talents.'--Weekend Australian

'The writing is beautiful: pellucid and wonderfully visual, painting memorable landscape cameos. The reader is compliant, willingly engaged with a story that starts in medias res and branches in unexpected and seemingly unconnected yet complementary directions, ending with a twist that is hard to get one's head around. As one tries to separate truth from lies and reality from self-delusion one is reminded of the Japanese jigsaws that the professor's father loved, the pieces "calculated to deceive, to lead one astray," but whose creation and solution reveal some greater truth about the world.'--Adelaide Advertiser

'Henshaw's effects are consistently magical...[He] has perfected a particular technique for the scenes set in Japan, one we might call leisurely lyricism...One of Henshaw's creations notes that: "Memory is a savage editor. It cuts time's throat." That, however, is not quite the practice adopted in this novel. Here, memory stimulates, time becomes more fluid, the past and the present scrape against each other, and emotions (as well as, occasionally, the truth) are refined and distilled.'--Canberra Times

'So well does author Mark Henshaw disguise the focus of his narrative that it was only after reading the final page I realised how misdirected my attention had been all along...Henshaw's assured command of a complex plot comprising many richly drawn characters ensures that themes such as the nature of friendship, kinship, memory and loss are explored with credibility and compassion. All this, plus two particularly satisfying plot twists, make for a fine read.'--Good Reading

'An exquisitely written puzzle.'--Australian Women's Weekly

'Stunning and hypnotic...Henshaw has rather written a deep reflection on life, memory, love and loss...You won't read another novel like The Snow Kimono this year, or perhaps for many to come.'--Asian Review of Books

Winner of the prestigious Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2015

From Algiers to Tokyo, Henshaw creates indelible images...An intriguing contemplation on the nature of storytelling itself.’ Booklist Online

Henshaw creates a world of psychological complexity and emotional subtlety in a story that moves from Paris to Japan and back again...Henshaw’s prose shimmers as his narrative becomes ever more nuanced, complex, and misleading.’ Kirkus Reviews

Casts a spell from the start A highly original book full of small sensations with the bonus of being a joy to read.’ Shots Magazine, UK

A novel of exquisite beauty.’ The Times [UK]

A superb read.’ Bookmooch

Complex, lucid and engrossing.’ Weekend Australian

Gripping...Like a Japanese puzzle, prized for their infinite solutions and depth of revelation, each chapter builds on the one before, unfolding through levels of story to unpack deeper and deeper truths.’ Guardian Australia

A work of extraordinary subtlety, excitement and intelligence...clever and exquisitely executed fiction.’ The Hoopla

The writing is beautiful: pellucid and wonderfully visual, painting memorable landscape cameos.’ Adelaide Advertiser

An exquisitely written puzzle.’ Australian Women’s Weekly

Stunning and hypnotic Henshaw has rather written a deep reflection on life, memory, love and loss You won’t read another novel like The Snow Kimono this year, or perhaps for many to come.’ Asian Review of Books

Paris, 1989. Recently retired police inspector Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman who claims to be his daughter. Two days later, a stranger knocks on his door. His name is Tadashi Omura, and he is a former law professor. He tells Jovert stories about his life, and about a man named Katsuo Ikeda, whom he met when they were both children and who later became a successful writer.

Set in France, Japan, and Algeria, The Snow Kimono is a jigsaw puzzle of a novel. The stories that Jovert and Omura tell each other fit together in unpredictable ways. Each new story changes the possibilities of what might happen next. Little by little we glimpse how these men have lied to themselves and to each other. These lies are about to catch up with them.

A quarter of a century after the best-selling, multi-award-winning Out of the Line of Fire, Mark Henshaw returns with a novel that is both a psychological thriller and an unforgettable meditation on love and loss, memory and its deceptions, and the things that bind us to others.

Mark Henshaw has lived in France, Germany, Yugoslavia, and the United States. He currently lives in Canberra. His debut, Out of the Line of Fire (1988) was one of the biggest selling Australian literary novels of its decade and was published in France, Germany, and Italy.