a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East 
 
Laszlo Krasznahorkai 
 
Tuskar Rock Press: 2022. First edition. Hardcover in a jacket. Slight bumping on the crown of the spine, but the book and jacket are crisp. Book feels close to uncracked. 130 pages. Near fine. 
 
Because it has been haunting his dreams, the immortal grandson of Prince Genji - yes, that Genji - searches for the most beautiful garden in the world. Every once in a while the Nobel Prize gets it right. Not not wrong, but right. Where to begin praising Krasznahorkai? The dizzying prose, the audacity with form, the commitment to life in this strange 21st century? Where to start with who has praised him with the slabs of gratitude readers reserve only for masterpieces? Sebald, Sontag, Toibin, Pynchon?  
 
"It was possible they wouldn't stand forever, he added, but time - and perhaps the miya daiku was smiling for the very first time during the long decades of work, looking into the eyes of his young disciple - they will withstand time. They drank sake out of tiny cups, and on that evening their laughter rang out."