Description

The Snail Book is a luminous picture book about the life of renowned Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi, one of the most important sculptors of all time who gave the world light. His Akari lamps changed the way modern buildings light their space. The world, however, was not always so giving in return. And before he was important, he was a kid. This is his story.

Growing up mixed-race, born in the United States but raised in Japan, Noguchi found himself perceived as an outsider who did not belong in either country. Unable to identify fully as either Japanese or American, he conceived of himself as a snail, capable of retreating into his creative shell when the world did not embrace him. Through his art, the Snail could shape, hold, and create light—to conquer the darkness without.

Poetic and searing, heart-wrenching and exquisite, the Snail Book explores emotions ravaged by a history of Japanese incarceration, the effects of personal isolation, and the power of art to heal those wounds.