Q&A with Clara Kumagai

  

 

 

 

Clara Kumagai is the author of the new young adult novel Songs for Ghosts. She also has written the YA novel Catfish Rolling. She is from Canada, Japan, and Ireland. 

 

Q: How was Songs for Ghosts’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I always find titles really difficult! I had a list of possible titles, and they kept getting longer and more abstract, and in the end I went back to the title very close to the top of the list: Songs for Ghosts. (The title at the very top turned out to be taken!)

 

As the novel is largely a ghost story, it seemed right to have that in the title, and music is a big part of the story too, not only because of the Madama Butterfly inspiration but because of the music that [my characters] Adam and the diary writer play.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: Because reading can be so private and subjective, I hope that readers take away something person to them, whether that’s a character that resonates with them or an interest in Japanese folklore.

 

For the particular themes of identity and culture, I wanted to show how Adam and the diary writer respond and learn through encountering other cultures and stories. How do they adapt and understand these differences and similarities? I think that considering other perspectives is incredibly valuable not just in fostering empathy but in opening up to the world.

 

I also wanted to show that the adults in the book are also learning, understanding and growing—that doesn’t end when you stop being a teenager!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Songs for Ghosts pulls on many Japanese stories—not just ghost stories and folklore but on a Japanese epic called The Tale of the Heike. This is cycle of stories traditionally told with an instrument called a biwa, which the diary writer learns to play (and which her grandmother played, too).

 

I wanted the novel to have the feeling of echoes, of stories within stories and how they are passed on and shared. I would love if readers found an interest in these old stories and read more of them.

 

There is also a little secret: I wrote one of the folklore stories—maybe you can guess which one!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb