Through the Arc of the Rain Forest
A novel by Karen Tei Yamashita

Winner, Janet Heidinger Kafka Award

Winner, American Book Award

"Bizarre and baroque, funny and sad. Yamashita’s novel may say more about saving the rain forest than its nonfiction counterparts do." - Utne Reader

"Yamashita presents a critique of human waste and stupidity that is fluid and poetic as well as terrifying." - The New York Times Book Review

"Humorous and exuberant melodrama, a satire on science, philanthropy, marketing research, corporate climbing, and pop evangelism." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

This freewheeling black comedy features a bizarre cast of characters, including a Japanese man with a ball floating six inches in front of his head, an American CEO with three arms, and a Brazilian peasant who discovers the art of healing by tickling one’s earlobe with a feather. By the end of this hilarious tale, they have risen to the heights of wealth and fame, before arriving at disasters - both personal and ecological - that destroy the rain forest and all teh birds of Brazil.

Karen Tei Yamashita is author of Brazil-Maru, one of the Village Voice 25 Best Books of the Year, and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, winner of the American Book Award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Award. Her works have been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. A native of California, she is teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

.

.