Memoirs of a Polar Bear

In her latest novel, Tokyo-born, Berlin-based Tawada, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, presents an unusual cast of characters: three generations of polar bears famed behind the Iron Curtain as circus performers and writers. The Soviet-born matriarch, proud of her performance skills if annoyed by her girly outfits, wins acclaim for her autobiographical Thunderous Applause for My Tears but begins to question her life and emigrates to Canada. Daughter Tosca triumphs in East Germany with a trick called the Kiss of Death, performed with a ponytailed trainer who isn't nearly as interesting as her charge. Tosca's son, Knut, born in a Leipzig zoo and happily bonding with his human trainer in Berlin, woefully recognizes the limits of his freedom when another trainer takes over. Throughout, Tawada's sleek, matter-of-fact prose makes us feel as if there's nothing unusual about having ursine protagonists.