Tokyo Cancelled — Rana Dasgupta

Thirteen strangers stranded in an Asian airport spin tales that “outdo Arabian Nights for inventiveness” in this debut novel (The Guardian).
 
Thirteen passengers are stranded at an airport. Tokyo, their destination, is covered in snow and all flights are cancelled. To pass the night they huddle by the baggage carousels and tell each other stories. So begins Tokyo Cancelled, a unique literary adventure that combines a modern landscape with a timeless, fairy-tale ethos. In his delightful debut, Dasgupta brings to life a cast of extraordinary individuals -- some lost, some confused, some happy -- in a world that remains ineffable, inexplicable, and wonderful.
 
A Ukrainian merchant is led by a wingless bird back to a lost lover; Robert De Niro's son masters the transubstantiation of matter and turns it against his enemies; a man who manipulates other people's memories has to confront his own past; a Japanese entrepreneur risks everything in his obsession with a doll; a mute Turkish girl has a strange encounter with a German man who is mapping the world.
 
Told by people on a journey, these stories “tackle themes of transit, dislocation and uprootedness” in a “sprawling, experimental project achieves an exotic luster” (Publishers Weekly).