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Seeing the Light
A Graphic Odyssey—with Cat 　
Through the History of Radiation
(BOOK ONE)
From Marie Curie to Fukushima

Author: Erika Kobayashi
Translator: Winifred Bird
Designer: Brennan Kelly
Publisher: arbaro books
Territory: World
Language: English
Publication: August 6, 2025 (Kindle eBook)
Length: 188 pp.
Price: USD 15 (GUMROAD)
Price: USD 15.99(Amazon Kindle)

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*This book follows the Japanese format of reading from right to left. We recommend downloading the PDF and viewing it in two-page spread mode with Acrobat Reader.

*Tip for iPhone/iPad readers:Hold your device in landscape, tap Aa › Layout, turn Continuous Scrolling Off, and the pages will display as a seamless two-page spread.

2025年8月6日発売予定！
”放射能”の歴史を辿るコミック『光の子ども1』小林エリカ（日本語版は1~3巻までリトルモア社より五十嵐哲夫デザインで刊行）Winifred Bird訳、Brennan Kellyデザインの英語版。

Originally published as
『光の子ども1』Hikari no Kodomo vol.1
Author: 　　Erika Kobayashi
Designer: 　Tetsuo Igarashi
Publisher: 　Little More
Publication: Tokyo, Japan 2013
ISBN: 978-4898153758

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arbaro books to Publish
English-language Edition of Seeing the Light
on August 6, 2025

Award-winning writer and artist Erika Kobayashi’s graphic novel Seeing the Light—originally released in the wake of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and acclaimed for sparking vigorous debate—will appear in English for the first time this summer. This special edition, timed to mark the 80th anniversary of the development and deployment of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The English edition is a special release, featuring Winifred Bird’s translation and Brennan Kelly’s exquisitely crafted design.

Was radiation truly a gift of science—or a curse unleashed?

Their journey, both literal and symbolic, revisits key historical moments: the discovery of radium by Marie Curie, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Radium Girls and the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

In this poetic and intellectually rich graphic novel by Erika Kobayashi — a novelist, Mainichi Publishing Culture Award winner and Akutagawa Prize nominee, and visual artist — a boy named Hikari (meaning “light”), born in 2011, and his mysterious companion cat, Erwin, traverse the complex and haunting legacy of radiation.

Blending documentary precision with speculative storytelling, Kobayashi creates a deeply emotional and meditative narrative. Through the wide-eyed perspective of a child and the paradoxical wisdom of a cat named after Schrödinger, readers are invited to explore how scientific discovery can shape, scar, and sometimes redeem the human experience.

This is not a simple chronology. It is an allegorical reflection on memory, intergenerational trauma, and the paradox of progress.

As Erwin the cat guides Hikari through time, the pair encounter not only historic events but their human consequences. The emotional weight of these memories is balanced by Kobayashi’s gentle, minimalist artwork and her characteristically restrained narrative tone. Seeing the Light continues her inquiry with luminous grace and intellectual daring.

Timelines, maps, and a curated reading list are included in the final pages, making the book both an artistic and educational achievement.

Seeing the Light will resonate with readers of contemporary literary fiction, speculative manga, and feminist storytelling. It is both a lament and an ode — to light, to science, to history, and to the enduring hope of a new generation.

Erika Kobayashi’s interdisciplinary work explores radiation, time, and memory — especially through the experiences of women. Her novel Trinity, Trinity, Trinity is available in English (translated by Brian Bergstrom, published by Astra House, and awarded the 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize), French (translated by Mathilde Tamae-Bouhon, DALVA), and Danish (translated by Mette Holm, Forlaget Korridor) and her short story collection SUNRISE - Radiant Stories- is also available in English (translated by Brian Bergstrom, Astra House).

Profile

Author/Erika Kobayashi is a Tokyo-based novelist, graphic-novel creator, and visual artist. Her novel Girls, Making Paper Balloon Bombs won the 78th Mainichi Publishing Culture Award, while Trinity, Trinity, Trinity has been translated into French, English, and Danish, and her story collection SUNRISE – Radiant Stories is available in English. She creates installations that echo and converse with her texts in museums and galleries worldwide, including the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Recent collaborations for stage and music include writing the Dramatic Read Opera pieces Girls, Spinning and Weaving and Girls, Making Paper Balloon Bombs with composer Saho Terao, and, with Phew and Dieter Moebius, producing the visual artwork for the album Radium Girls.
erikakobayashi.com

Translator/Winifred Bird is an editor, translator and writer living in the northeastern United States. She is the author of Eating Wild Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2021) and has written about the environment in Japan for magazines and newspapers. Her translations include Fox Tales by Tomihiko Morimi and Mirai and Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda. She is currently an editor at Tuttle Publishing.

Designer/Brennan Kelly is a graphic designer, artist, and educator born on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory. He received a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communications from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2008, a Post-baccalaureate Diploma in Visual Art from Simon Fraser University in 2015, and a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art from the University of Guelph in 2018. He currently maintains a hybridized professional practice that moves between the spaces of art and design, while teaching in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University in Tkaronto/Toronto.
brennankelly.ca

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