I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Eclipse by Hirano Keiichiro is a first person POV literary historical Japanese novella. A young Dominican friar in the fifteenth century goes to Florence for books on pre-Christian philosophy. On the way, he meets an alchemist in a town that is having a few struggles of its own. And what he finds is both human and not.

As someone who grew up Catholic, I’m always a fan of how other people view historical (and modern) Catholic practices from as many POVs as possible. The Samurai by Endo Shusaku, a Catholic Japanese author, is one of my favorite historicals of all time for that very reason. Hirano Keiichiro goes into the complex views of Catholicism vs alchemy at the time and how faith and science can both be at odds and influence each other. The priest in town having a child after taking the cloth was something that happened quite often (the Medici family had a lot of ties to the Papacy, for instance) and even continues to this day despite the vows to abstain from physical relationships.

The novella explores a lot of dichotomies and takes a more philosophical tone rather than a plot-focused narrative. A lot of the imagery is creating a contrast that gets called back to or is part of the larger whole. Towards the end, we get a far more detailed look into the philosophy in relation to the experiments of the local alchemist.

Content warning for mentions of torture and the G slur

I would recommend this to fans of literary historical novels and readers looking for a Japanese novella set in Europe in the fifteenth century

Now what have I just read?
Eclipse is hard to describe because when put down as ‘a friar goes to Florence in the eve of Renaissance and meets an alchemist in a village’ it does it little justice.
Like The Prophet, Eclipse carries deep insights and questions.
Although well written and having an ideal length, I am unsure if it was my lack of full grasp or a bit of the prose that made this a 4 star instead of a 5 star read for me.
I will read this book again come autumn time and see if I can absorb all its teachings.

One of the strangest books I’ve read but maybe not the most enjoyable. This book was mind bending but after I finished it I was underwhelmed. I also didn’t like the writing, but this could be due to some phrases getting lost in translation I’m not sure

I enjoyed this a lot. Such a fascinating period of history and such a well told story. The exploration around religion and culture was fascinating.

Eclipse is Keiichiro Hirano's novella delving deep into mythological lore, alchemy, and history. A perfect blend of three, Hirano's prose is sharp and cuts straight to the teeth. It is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read a literary twist on a historical fiction. Short but with luscious imagery that is rich and decadent, we follow an undergraduate student as he goes out to find a missing manuscript on medieval alchemy during a scholarly quest. It is an easy and quick read, but still manages a lot to ponder about and creates a foundation to be a classic.

I don't suppose there are many people who would expect a novel about pre-Renaissance religious thought in Europe to be a particularly entertaining read but "Eclipse" is a fascinating and ,it could be said literally ,enlightening book. Equally,if you haven't read it,it is surprising that a book on this subject should be a massive seller,an award winner and considered a classic in Japan.

The somewhat spare plot involves a young Dominican scholar interested in the links between Pagan and Christian teachings as written about by Thomas Aquinas and others. On a journey to Florence in search of a pre-Christian manuscript recommended to him by his mentor he's directed to a small village along the way and told that a local Alchemist has knowledge that will help him in a different kind of journey.

That brief description doesn't even touch the sides of what an amazing book this is, I rarely read books twice but along with The Prophet it's one I'll read again and again. There's so much insight here,so much to think about and learn. I'm no scholar but author Keiichiro Hirano's skill in making some quite complex theological ideas and principles not only accessible but fascinating is the work of a master. At times I struggled as something totally new to me was related but the device of the young Dominican struggling himself with these ideas and his thought processes giving both himself and the reader an explanation for the layman is genius. This is a lot more than a novel,in a small number of pages there's philosophy,theology ,history and a wide range of spiritual and esoteric lore.

The effort made to bring this book to an English-speaking audience also deserves mention, A large team of academics were involved and impressively author Hirano was also involved in the translation making sure that the English language version of his work was as he'd want it to be.
The first time I read this book it was Google to hand to decipher some of the more archaic words and read about some of the early teachers mentioned which broke the narrative at times. I'll definitely be reading it again at least once so that's a one off issue ,and of course I learned something new along the way which is never time wasted.

Quite and amazing book that I'm confident will been seen very quickly as a classic work in the English-speaking world as well as in it's native Japan.

‘We cannot help looking, at every opportunity, for signs of a miracle in our daily lives.’

This was such a fascinating and unusual read. A young Dominican monk goes on a scholarly quest, only to get caught up in a strange, hermitical alchemists work, culminating in a bizarre sequence of events, both natural, and perhaps, supernatural.
This story was definitely not what I expected it to be. It wasn’t an easy read, as the novel is dense with philosophical theory, questions and monologues about the meaning of life and religion’s place in society. Despite this, the story still flowed well, and I found myself always wanting to know what would happen next. This novel was both intriguing and enjoyable to read.

This book seemed right up my street from the description... Japanese historical fiction..Yes please! I was really disappointed therefore - this was a tedious read and I only persevered because of its short length. Some errors in translation stuck out for me. For example, "what sounded the tocsin for me".. The word tocsin comes from late 16th century whereas this novel is set in the 15th century.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The way the narrator reflects over certain ideas and beliefs is something that I enjoyed reading over. The story itself was interesting and I loved how it developed.