Tell us about your new YA novel, Songs for Ghosts
Songs for Ghosts is a retelling of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. Part historical fiction, part ghost story, it weaves together two different narratives: one set today and the other in Japan in the 1910s. One protagonist is a young woman living in Nagasaki, recording her life and experiences in a diary – a diary which is found a hundred years later by a queer multiracial Japanese teenager called Adam. This diary, and the ghost that begins haunting Adam, leads him to Nagasaki, where he searches for the end of Kiku’s story and his own estranged family.
You had issues with Puccini’s portrayal of race and gender. How did you address this?
I wanted to explore the story from different perspectives – from the point of view of the Madame Butterfly character, and also from her son, who is called Sorrow in the opera and for whom she essentially sacrifices herself. And more deeply than that, I wanted to think about power and privilege and how they play into relationships, whether that be for a young woman in early 20th-century Japan or for a queer, multiracial teenager in today’s world. The narrative of Madame Butterfly was told in different forms before the opera was created, and has been retold many times since, so I also wanted to look at how stories are passed on, how people are remembered, and how we use stories to understand ourselves.
How challenging was the interweaving of two timelines, 1911 and the present day?
The 1911 narrative is told through a diary, which was a form I hadn’t written before and was both fun and difficult to work out. Because the other narrator, Adam, is reading the diary I had to consider how he would be reacting to it in a way that would resonate with readers, too. And a lot of it came down to structure – where does one narrative end and another begin and how to balance tension and action in each. There was a lot of moving things around before I found the right flow.
Your debut novel, Catfish Rolling, won the Children’s Book Ireland Book of the Year 2024. What’s it about?
Catfish Rolling was inspired by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Japanese myth. The protagonist, Sora, is a Japanese-Canadian teenager who lost her mother in a huge earthquake – an earthquake so big it broke time itself, creating certain places in Japan where time runs faster or slower than normal. Even though years have passed, Sora is still searching for her mother, but then her father, who is studying the strange time zones, begins to fall ill.
You have a dual identity, Irish and Japanese. How does that feed into your writing?
I think that identity, home and belonging are themes that often recur in my writing, and the idea of multiplicity rather than binaries. That’s why I’m drawn to writing for young adults – because it’s a time of turbulence and change, and a big part of that is figuring out who you are and your place in the world. I mean, that’s an ongoing thing throughout a person’s life, but in teenage years I feel that it’s particularly powerful.
[ Clara Kumagai: Feeling the fusion on the dancefloor at Féile TokyoOpens in new window ]
I loved your essay, Memorials, in Stinging Fly magazine. How did it develop?
I was very fortunate to be approached by Lisa McInerney, who was editing a special Galway issue of the Stinging Fly, and who asked me if I’d be interested in writing something for it. I started by remembering the formative places for me while growing up in Galway, and (stereotypically) I thought of the library. Loughrea Library is in a renovated church which is still surrounded by a graveyard, and one of the graves belongs to a Chinese man, Djiu Be Fu, who tragically died in the lake in 1936. There were so many possibilities in his story and how he came to be laid to rest there and I found that even in imagining them I was imposing my own assumptions on to him – and this led me to consider personal experiences regarding identity and place. It resulted in a sort of speculative non-fiction.
How do the Japanese and Irish folklore traditions compare?
There’s a strong tradition in both Ireland and Japan, and they both feature trickster figures, lessons of good and bad behaviour and the consequences of both. (Though I think these are features of many folkloric traditions around the world.) They’re both quite rooted in place; in Japan there are stories very specific to certain areas, and in Ireland I think people can often point out where stories have taken place – a fairy tree, a stretch of road, an old house.
Which projects are you working on?
A graphic novel script (not the art side of it, however!), which is interesting because it’s a whole new approach to writing; because of the visual aspect I have to envision scenes more concretely.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
If I count research then yes, I’ve made quite a few. While writing Catfish Rolling I visited places in Tohoku that had been affected by the 2011 earthquake. For Songs for Ghosts I went to Nagasaki twice, once to see the Spirit Boat Festival, which features in the book. One pilgrimage I made which was not for research was taking a trip on the SL Ginga, which was a train inspired by Kenji Miyazawa’s book Night on the Galactic Railroad.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
I don’t know who said this but it’s the most basic and important advice: just keep going. Finishing a book, redrafting a story, getting deeper into character – keep going.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
Abolish billionaires. Millionaires too.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
I’ve just started James by Percival Everett and so far so good!
Which public event affected you most?
Just about all of the solidarity events for Palestine; the passing of marriage equality in 2015.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
I was in Vietnam recently and went to an area called Ninh Binh, which had some of the most otherworldly geography I’ve ever seen.
Your most treasured possession?
I would say my cats if it wasn’t impossible to truly own a cat.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
My brother and sister gave me a book for my birthday that I’ve coveted for a long time – a Folio Society edition of Lady Gregory’s Irish Myths and Legends, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki.
The best and worst things about where you live?
Best thing: I have green bookshelves in my library that I am very proud of. Worst thing: there’s a substantial amount of books on those shelves that I don’t have enough time to read.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
A book to make me laugh?
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison.
A book that might move me to tears?
A picture book called Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw.
Songs for Ghosts by Clara Kumagai is published by Zephyr
