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The Translator

The Translator
  • Author(s): Nina Schuyler
  • Location(s): Japan
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

When renowned translator Hanne Schubert falls down a flight of stairs, she suffers a brain injury and ends up with an unusual but real condition: the ability to only speak the language she learned later in life: Japanese. Isolated...

The Caiman of Iquitos

The Caiman of Iquitos
  • Author(s): Bayard and Holmes
  • Location(s): Peru, Japan
  • Genre(s): Spy, Thriller
  • Era(s): Present

In a chilling continuation of their Apex Predator novels, Bayard & Holmes compel us into the darkest corners of the Shadow World. A world where billionaires are not subject to governments and assassins, rogue nations, and terrorists are their...

Takeout Sushi

Takeout Sushi
  • Author(s): Christopher Green
  • Location(s): Japan
  • Genre(s): Short Stories
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Takeout Sushi is a collection of 17 illustrated short stories set mostly in contemporary Japan that explore feelings of belonging, displacement, and the strangeness of everyday human interaction. In an innovative, fast-paced company, a man’s job comes under threat...

The Library of Heartbeats

The Library of Heartbeats
  • Author(s): Laura Imai Messina
  • Location(s): Kamakura, Teshima
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still...

A Perfect Day to be Alone

A Perfect Day to be Alone
  • Author(s): Nanae Aoyama, Jesse Kirkwood (Translator)
  • Location(s): Chofu, Tokyo
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

It was raining when I arrived at the house. The walls of my room were lined with cat photos, set in fancy frames just below the ceiling. When her mother emigrates to China for work, twenty-year-old Chizu moves in...

Theft

Theft
  • Author(s): Peter Carey
  • Location(s): Australia, Manhattan, Tokyo
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Narrated by the twin voices of the artist Butcher Bones, and his ‘damaged two-hundred-and-twenty-pound brother’ Hugh, Theft: A Love Story once again displays Peter Carey’s extraordinary flair for language. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via...

The North Light

The North Light
  • Author(s): Hideo Yokoyama, Louise Heal Kawai (Translator)
  • Location(s): Japan
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery
  • Era(s): Current

Minoru Aose is an architect whose greatest achievement is to have designed the Yoshino house, a prizewinning and much discussed private residence built in the shadow of Mount Asama. Aose has never been able to replicate this triumph and...

Our Cursed Love

Our Cursed Love
  • Author(s): Julie Abe
  • Location(s): Japan
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Romance

‘A celebration of all things Japan, magic, and romance, readers will swoon at this charming, big-hearted friends-to-lovers story’ – Emiko Jean, author of Tokyo Ever After Destiny, magic, true love . . . Remy is in love with her...

Bird Life

Bird Life
  • Author(s): Anna Small
  • Location(s): Tokyo
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another’s lives. Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to...

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

The Kamogawa Food Detectives
  • Author(s): Hisashi Kashiwai, Jesse Kirkwood (Translator)
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Cosy Mystery, Food and Drink
  • Era(s): Contemporary

The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just...

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