Kathleeen Evin (L'humeur vagabonde - 10/22) interviews the Brazilian auther Bernardo Carvalho whose book, Le soleil se couche à San Paulo, has just come out in French (translated by Geneviève Leibrich). Near closing time in a restaurant in Sao Paulo, the owner asks one of the lingering customers if he is a writer, and the customer, Setsuko, becomes the narrator of a story that begins in Japan during WWII and leads to Brazil. The love triangle between Masukichi, Michiyo and Jokichi is just the backdrop to another story, which is the history of Japan at war and the consequences that this has on the Japanese community living in Brazil. The narrator realizes, as he recounts the Brazilian adventures of Tanizaki and the Emperor's cousin, that it's also his own story - that of second generation Japanese immigrants coping with humiliation and exile.
Carvalho talks about his fascination with Japan, while claiming to know next to nothing about it, and shares his thoughts on Tanizaki, Mishima and the notion of national identity.
