Izumi is a woman on the edge who never wants to stop teetering. In “Set My Heart on Fire,” set in 1970s Yokohama’s underground music scene, the groupie narrator roams from conquest to conquest, and often finds herself equally conquered.
Originally published in 1996, Izumi Suzuki’s autobiographical book is the first novel by the author and actor to appear in English, with fluid translations by Helen O’Horan. The work of the cult writer, who died in 1986, has seen new interest in English after Verso Books published her speculative science fiction story collection “Terminal Boredom” in 2021. Izumi starred in pinku eiga (soft-core adult films) and modeled for photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, and photos of her are often used for her book covers, making the author’s bad-girl image inseparable from her work.
Set My Heart on Fire, by Izumi Suzuki. Translated by Helen O’Horan. 192 pages, VERSO BOOKS, Fiction.