Fractured Soul
Japan

Fractured Soul

by Akira Mizubayashi

War & Conflict Historical Fiction Fiction 2019

Summary

Tokyo, 1938. During a private musical gathering, military police burst in and arrest Yu, a Japanese musician whose love of Western classical music has drawn suspicion. His young son, Rei, witnesses the destruction of his father’s violin and the sudden collapse of their family. With the help of a compassionate stranger, Rei escapes to France, carrying the fragments of the broken instrument. Decades later, now living in Paris as a violin maker, he dedicates himself to restoring damaged instruments—but the wounds of his childhood remain unresolved. When a young violinist unexpectedly reconnects him with his past, the broken violin becomes a symbol of memory, loss, and the possibility of healing. Moving between Japan and France, Fractured Soul explores the enduring power of music to transcend political violence and bring people together across generations. It is a poignant story about what war destroys, what art preserves, and how beauty can emerge from the deepest suffering.

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Country
Japan
Asia
About the author
Akira Mizubayashi
Akira Mizubayashi

Akira Mizubayashi (born 1951) is a Japanese writer, translator, and scholar who writes primarily in French. Born in Yamagata, Japan, he studied French at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies before continuing his education in France, where he developed a profound attachment to the French language and literature. His experience of living between Japanese and French linguistic and cultural worlds has become a central influence on his writing. Mizubayashi taught French at Sophia University in Tokyo, where he is now professor emeritus. Before Fractured Soul, he published several works exploring language, cultural identity, and the experience of belonging to more than one linguistic world, including Une langue venue d’ailleurs (2011). His novel Fractured Soul (Âme brisée) was published in 2019 and received the Prix des libraires in France in 2020. His fiction often explores the relationship between music, memory, and human connection, examining how art can preserve dignity and humanity amid political oppression. Through elegant, emotionally restrained prose, Mizubayashi has established himself as a distinctive voice bridging Japanese and French literary traditions.

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Details
Published
2019
Author
Akira Mizubayashi