A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton will be featured on the Radio 2 Book Club on Monday 24 August.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK.
We have an exclusive extract available for you to read as well a reading guide for your group.
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
When a badly scarred man knocks on the door of Amaterasu Takahashi’s retirement home and says that he is her grandson, she doesn’t believe him. She knows her grandson, and her daughter, died the day the Americans dropped the atomic bomb; she searched the ruined city for weeks.
Amaterasu has buried the memories of that day and the years leading up to it. Suppressing her feelings was something she became an expert at during the long sake-pouring nights she worked in a hostess bar. But why does she blame herself for her daughter’s death and why does she hold the man her daughter loved in such contempt? And if you’ve become adept at lying, can you still recognise when someone is telling the truth?
Selection panel review
Our reading panel of staff from The Reading Agency and public libraries really enjoyed A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding – here are some of their comments:
“Amazing journey told back to front so the reveal is in place and the story of how it happens remains to be told and what a story! This book has it all and the way it weaves through past and present makes it a joy to read.”
“A beautifully written book – the slow unravelling of the plot and development of character. I learned a lot about Nagasaki and it didn’t follow the typical westernised propaganda on the war.”
“I really enjoyed the book – I felt that the characters stayed with me, and I liked the mix of themes in the book: it has elements of history (about the atomic bomb in Japan) and is also about relationships, and Japanese culture. Many layers to the story – stories within stories.”
About the author
Jackie Copleton has a Master of Arts from Cambridge University and an MLitt (Distinction) in creative writing from Glasgow University. In 2011, she was joint winner of the Curtis Brown prize for fiction across the university’s creative writing programme. Before becoming a newspaper production journalist, she lived in Nagasaki and Sapporo for three years, where she taught English. This is her first novel.
A word from Jackie
“This is my first novel and the subject matter means so much to me. I lived in Nagasaki and the novel is inspired by the recollections of the survivors, the hibakusha. Writing about that day in history, August 9 1945, feels like a huge responsibility. So when I heard the novel had been chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club, I was thrilled. I received the phone call while I was waiting for a bus, next to Loch Long, in Argyll, Scotland. Across the water I could see Coulport, where the UK’s nuclear warheads are stored. In the year of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombs, I want the stories of the hibakusha to live on.
To be given such a wonderful platform as Radio 2 to help do so is a real honour. That people have taken the time to read the book, think about its message and then recommend it is humbling. I’ve never been on radio before but I want to do a good job, not only representing the book, but also what the hibakusha have taught me about one of the most beautiful words in any language: Peace."
Get involved
Tune in to Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show on Monday 24 August to hear a live interview with Jackie Copleton talking about her book.
Have you read A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter, or post a review. You can also follow author Jackie Copleton on Twitter.
Want to find out more? Take a look at the Radio 2 Book Club Twitter feed or find out more on the Radio 2 Book Club website
