# Eclipse

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/keiichiro-hirano/eclipse/9780231214919

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/keiichiro-hirano/eclipse/9780231214919.json

![Eclipse](https://quivercdn.com/covers/columbia-university-press/keiichiro-hirano/eclipse_978-02-3121-491-9-0c865f53.webp?v=2026-11-09%2007%3A02%3A52)

- Book: [Eclipse](https://www.bookquiver.com/keiichiro-hirano/eclipse) ([Eclipse.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/keiichiro-hirano/eclipse.md))
- Authors: [Keiichiro Hirano](https://www.bookquiver.com/keiichiro-hirano)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- ISBN: 978-02-3121-491-9
- Pages: 152
- Published: 2024-11-12
- Language: en_US
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

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.