Izumi is a woman on the edge who never wants to stop teetering. In ¡°Set My Heart on Fire,¡± set in 1970s Yokohama¡¯s underground music scene, the groupie narrator roams from conquest to conquest, and often finds herself equally conquered.
Originally published in 1996, Izumi Suzuki¡¯s autobiographical book is the first novel by the author and actor to appear in English, with fluid translations by Helen O¡¯Horan. The work of the cult writer, who died in 1986, has seen new interest in English after Verso Books published her speculative science fiction story collection ¡°Terminal Boredom¡± in 2021. Izumi starred in pinku eiga (soft-core adult films) and modeled for photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, and photos of her are often used for her book covers, making the author¡¯s bad-girl image inseparable from her work.
Set My Heart on Fire, by Izumi Suzuki. Translated by Helen O¡¯Horan. 192 pages, VERSO BOOKS, Fiction.
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