The White Kami: A Novel

Meredith arrives in a remote Japanese village seeking something he cannot name. What he finds there shatters every assumption he carried from the West. The locals speak of the White Kami, a spirit that haunts their mountains and legends, and Meredith, a man of science and skepticism, should dismiss their superstitions as ignorance. Instead, he becomes consumed. As he digs deeper into the mystery, the line between observer and participant blurs. Strange phenomena multiply. Ancient rituals demand something from him. The villagers watch him with knowing eyes. By the novel's climax, Meredith confronts not just the truth of the White Kami, but the transformation it has worked upon his own soul. Written in 1920s Japan with an outsider's reverent fear, this novel captures a particular historical moment when Westerners journeyed East seeking redemption, transformation, anything that might make them new. It is a period piece to be sure, but one that grapples honestly with the violence of looking at another culture as a mirror for your own longing.