Eclipse - by Keiichiro Hirano

About the Book

Keiichiro Hirano's Eclipse, set on the eve of the Renaissance in Europe, is the award-winning debut novel of one of Japan's most celebrated contemporary writers.

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2025-2026 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University

In the late fifteenth century, a young Dominican friar sets out on a journey from Paris to Florence in search of manuscripts of pre-Christian philosophy. Along the way, he encounters an ascetic alchemist in a small village. As the young man falls under the spell of the alchemist's quest for enlightenment, a series of disasters--culminating in a total solar eclipse--strikes the village, with profound consequences.

Keiichiro Hirano's Eclipse was a meteoric literary sensation when it first appeared in 1998. Its author, still an undergraduate, was hailed as a prodigy; the book received Japan's most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, and became a bestseller. Set on the eve of the Renaissance in Europe, Eclipse depicts a society that is on the surface vastly different from modern-day Japan. Yet its account of a challenge to dualistic binaries and ossified worldviews holds striking contemporary resonance and philosophical depth. Taking the form of a memoir, Eclipse brings together an evocative portrayal of its historical setting, including the lore of medieval alchemy, with a rich literary lexicon, lush imagery, and psychological intricacy. This vivid translation offers Anglophone readers a vital work by one of Japan's most distinctive voices.

Review Quotes

A brilliant and evocative novel with a rich and thought-provoking narrative about deeply resonating themes that compel its reader to introspection.-- "Conscientious Reflections"

An engaging, thought-provoking and deeply-imagined work.-- "Asian Review of Books"

Eclipse is quite simply a wonderful novel...Consider this, then, a thumping endorsement of the book, one I hope many of you out there will be willing to give a try.-- "Tony's Reading List"

An unusual and quite remarkable piece of writing.-- "Complete Review"

A fascinating tale of an encounter between a young Dominican friar and an alchemist, with a witch hunter lurking in the background. Some readers will be reminded of Eco's The Name of the Rose.--Margaret Mitsutani, translator of Scattered All Over the Earth

About the Author

Keiichiro Hirano is an acclaimed Japanese novelist who has published fifteen major works of fiction in a variety of genres and styles. His other books in English translation are A Man (2020) and At the End of the Matinee (2021).

Brent de Chene is professor emeritus at Waseda University.

Charles De Wolf is professor emeritus at Keio University.