In 2017, holed up in a hotel room, feverish, despondent and aimless, Iain Maloney chances upon an article about Richard Henry Brunton, a Victorian civil engineer unknown in his Scottish homeland but considered ‘The Father of Japanese Lighthouses’ in Japan. With more than twenty of his lighthouses still in use today, Maloney sets out with newfound purpose to visit them all.
Part travel memoir, part history, The Japan Lights visits isolated regions of rural Japan, discovering compelling stories from its past. Maloney witnesses the lingering trauma of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and comes to a new understanding of the precariousness of life on a planet that is 71 per cent water. On the way he explores the paradox of Brunton, a flawed human being whose work saved hundreds of thousands of lives and made the seas around Japan safer for all.
Iain Maloney sheds new light on the topic, with a mix of historical fact and personal touches…an entertaining, enjoyable and informative read.
Chris Glenn, radio DJ, TV presenter and author
Maloney brings a fresh twenty-first century sensibility to fellow Scotsman, engineer Richard Henry Brunton, who literally illuminated Japan’s waterways in the late 1800s. Spiked with wit and sharp observations (and occasionally splashed with whisky), The Japan Lights is both entertaining and informative, like going on a series of road trips with an inquisitive
friend. I will never look at a lighthouse in Japan in the same way again.
Suzanne Kamata, author of Squeaky Wheels: Travels with My Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair
In a kind of time-travel memoir, Iain Maloney shines a light on Brunton, illuminating both his good deeds, and his shortcomings with equal care and tenderness. Maloney’s humour and compassion are the real star of the show.
Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and The City
Maloney takes us on a rollicking roadtrip around Japan—sometimes with his friends, sometimes alone, ofttimes with his wife—as he visits lighthouses built by the disputatious Scottish engineer Henry Brunton. Along the ride, the reader learns about the Meiji Restoration that brought foreign experts into Japan to help the nation modernize after its period of seclusion, and the cultural mishaps that accompanied this system. We learn the history behind each of Brunton’s lighthouses as well as the local history of the areas surrounding them. Amy Chavez, author of The Widow, The Priest and the Octopus Hunter
A kaleidoscope of a book. What begins as a road movie, Maloney travelling to remote corners of Japan, seeking out lighthouses designed by Scot Richard Brunton (appointed by the Lighthouse Stevensons), becomes a journey through his adopted homeland’s geography, history, politics, culture and art. In doing so he does much the same for his native Scotland (and various
other places en route!) You will never need another Japanese guide book – Maloney brings to life places few manuals will even mention. It’s also a frank and witty personal memoir. ‘Tour de force’ is a term used too readily, but Maloney deserves it. Containing so much the book shouldn’t really hang together – but it so does. By turns deeply knowledgeable and inquisitive, The Japan Lights is warm, welcoming, endlessly engrossing and entertaining.
Chris Dolan, author of Everything Passes, Everything Remains
Best kept by your bedside for a few months, like a night light that sheds small but significant illuminations… From where the book sits on my bedside, one of Maloney’s lessons still calls out to me: “No more heroes, no more villains, just flawed, messy, broken humans,” he writes. Those words glow faintly in my mind each day, serving as a guiding light through the seas of life. Kris Kosaka, The Japan Times
A beguiling read. The Bottle Imp
Much of the pleasure of this particular journey can be found in Maloney’s wry personal observations… and the wit with which he scatters them throughout the book. Patrick McCoy, Kyoto Journal
Iain Maloney 