Sign-In
Cart
Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralGeneral PhotographyJapan
Publisher Price: $31.00
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0593732545
ISBN13: 9780593732540
Publisher: Random House
Published: May 6 2025
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.02
Height: 1.15 Width: 5.85 Depth: 8.55
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780593732540
Publisher: Random House
Published: May 6 2025
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.02
Height: 1.15 Width: 5.85 Depth: 8.55
Language: English
A transformative 300-mile walk along Japan's ancient pilgrimage routes and through depopulating villages inspires a heartrending remembrance of a long-lost friend, documented in poignant, imaginative prose and remarkable photography. An epic, exquisitely detailed journey, on foot, through a rural Japan few of us are likely to experience. Uniquely unforgettable.--William Gibson, New York Times bestselling author of Neuromancer A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Shelf Awareness
Photographer and essayist Craig Mod is a veteran of long solo walks. But in 2021, during the pandemic shutdown of Japan's borders, one particular walk around the Kumano Kodō routes--the ancient pilgrimage paths of Japan's southern Kii Peninsula--took on an unexpectedly personal new significance. Mod found himself reflecting on his own childhood in a post-industrial American town, his experiences as an adoptee, his unlikely relocation to Japan at nineteen, and his relationship with one lost friend, whose life was tragically cut short after their paths diverged. For Mod, the walk became a tool to bear witness to a quiet grace visible only when you're bored out of your skull and the miles left are long. Tracing a 300-mile-long journey, Things Become Other Things folds together history, literature, poetry, Shinto and Buddhist spirituality, and contemporary rural life in Japan via dozens of conversations with aging fishermen, multi-generational inn owners, farmers, and kissaten cafe mamas. Along the way, Mod communes with mountain fauna, marvels over evidence of bears and boars, and hopscotches around leeches. He encounters whispering priests and foul-mouthed little kids who ask him, Just what the heck are you, anyway? Through sharp prose and his curious archive of photographs, he records evidence of floods and tsunamis, the disappearance of village life on the peninsula, and the capricious fecundity of nature. Things Become Other Things blends memoir and travel writing at their best, transporting readers to an otherwise inaccessible Japan, one made visible only through Mod's unique bicultural lens.
Also from
Mod, Craig
Also in
General Photography
The Poetics of Distortion: Panoramic Photographs of the San Francisco Bay Area
Schiff, Thomas R.
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Impossible Road Trip: An Unforgettable Journey to Past and Present Roadside Attractions in All 50 States
Dregni, Eric
Hardcover
$31.50
National Parks USA: Shores, Mountains, Wetlands, and Prairies: America's Newest Parks
Publications International Ltd
Hardcover
$18.98
National Geographic the Photo Ark: One Man's Quest to Document the World's Animals
Sartore, Joel
Chadwick, Douglas H.
Hardcover
$19.99
Court Queens: Celebrate the Players, Teams, and History of Women's Basketball
Robinson, Jordan
Baccellieri, Emma
Hardcover
$33.25
Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams: The Official Visual History
Maiden, Iron
Dickinson, Bruce
Harris, Steve
Hardcover
$61.75
Otherworldly America: Explore the Most Unique Natural Wonders of the United States
Guzman, Jake
Hardcover
$38.00
Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion: The Life and Vision Behind an American Icon
Flusser, Alan
Hardcover
$61.75
The Photographer's Eye - Definitive Edition: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
Freeman, Michael
Paperback
$28.49
Photographer's Guide to the Nikon Coolpix P950: Getting the Most from Nikon's Superzoom Digital Camera
White, Alexander S.
Paperback
$40.53
The Marilyn Monroe Century: From Norma Jeane to Icon--A Story in Photographs
Miller, Joshua John
Fortin, M. a.
Hardcover
$57.00
Massimo Listri. the World's Most Beautiful Libraries. 45th Ed.
Ruppelt, Georg
Sladek, Elisabeth
Hardcover
$30.00
The Greatest Original Film Scores: An Illustrated History of the Music of Movies
Jousse, Thierry
Hardcover
$42.75
Infinite Steps: Thirty-Three Dancers and Their Lives in Ballet
Larsen, Gavin
Schiavone, Gene
Paperback
$33.25
The National Geographic Story: Legendary Photographs, Artifacts, Adventures, and Discoveries That Changed the World
National Geographic
Hardcover
$47.50
Bodega Cats of New York: Portraits and Stories from New York City's Working Cats
Rimada, Dan
Hardcover
$28.50
Horse Country: Inside the World of Equestrian Style and Sport, from British Dressage to Western Riding
O'Shea-Evans, Kathryn
Hardcover
$57.00
National Geographic the Photographs: Iconic Images from National Geographic
National Geographic
Hardcover
$47.50
National Geographic Photo Basics: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Great Photography
Sartore, Joel
Paperback
$18.99
Bookstores of the World: The Ultimate Around-The-World Tour for Bibliophiles and Bookshop Lovers (Deluxe Oversize Edition)
Mollier, Jean-Yves
Sorel, Patricia
Hardcover
$85.45
Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives
Cave, Damien
Canedy, Dana
Eveleigh, Darcy
Hardcover
$33.25