The Place of Shells

Ishizawa’s solemn if nebulous debut, set in Germany during the Covid-19 lockdown, centers on an art history student who convenes with two ghosts from her native Japan. The unnamed narrator is studying medieval iconography in Göttingen, “a city that blended over the seams in time.” There, she welcomes the arrival of the ghost of Nomiya, her friend who disappeared during the 2011 tsunami. She also converses with other “pilgrims of time, pilgrims of memory,” including a Japanese physicist from the early 20th century. The narrator is a perceptive flaneur, guiding readers through the city’s Planetenweg, a scaled replica of the solar system, and St. Jacobi-Kirche, a church “named for the saint that guides those on their travels.” Late in the novel, elements of body horror creep in—teeth grow on the narrator’s back—shedding light on how memories of disaster can manifest in the body. Though the story’s dreamy lyricism sometimes slips into imprecision (a woman’s face is “dusted with laughter like cake-crumbs”), Ishizawa sustains an incantatory mood, and she offers plenty of bewitching descriptions of artworks. This has its moments. (Feb.)