Recently, I have noticed more and more people carrying around books by Haraki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Sayaka Murata and other well-known Japanese authors. This piqued my interest in Japanese literature and so this summer I focused on reading Japanese novels available in English translation – from unsettling dystopias to unconventional novels on time travel. I have listed eight of my personal favourite novels, including the ones I have already read and those I am most eager to read in the future.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (translator)
The novel is set in a small café in a secluded alley in Tokyo that offers its customers a unique experience: the opportunity to travel back in time. However, strict rules must be followed to be able to do so, which surprise the four visitors who we follow in their journey into the past.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s emotional novel explores the age-old questions: ‘what would you change if you could travel back in time?’ or ‘who would you want to meet, maybe one last time?’
2. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, Sam Bett and David Boyd (translators)
Kawakami’s new novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student who is subjected to relentless bullying for having a lazy eye. The boy, instead of fighting back, decides to silently suffer. However, he slowly starts to form a bond with Kojima, a female classmate who seems to be the only person who understands what he’s going through as she suffers similar treatment at the hands of her classmates.
The raw and brutal depictions of violence and the fragility of the teenage mind are counterbalanced by tender expositions of philosophical debates concerning the weak and the strong. Heralded by Karuki Murakami, Kawakami’s works are cementing her reputation as one of the most influential young authors contributing to the expansion of contemporary Japanese literature.
3. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator)
The international bestseller Convenience Store Woman follows the unconventional life of a convenience store woman in a conventional society. The thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura has never fit in until she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart” at eighteen. Since then, she has spent eighteen years having found purpose working in the same convenience store. In the store, unlike anywhere else, Keiko understands and mimics the rules of social interaction perfectly laid out in the store’s manual, from the way she dresses to the way she speaks. Keiko seems more than satisfied with her life, but as time passes the people close to her increasingly pressure her to start a “proper” career and to find a husband. This leads her to take desperate action that completely changes her life.
Challenging the concepts of contemporary work culture and conformity, Convenience Store Woman provides an insightful portrayal of the mind of one of those people who are considered “outcasts” in a society that demands orthodoxy.
4. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (translator)
The dystopian science fiction novel by Yoko Ogawa centres around the unusual events that take place on an unnamed island off an unnamed coast. Objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
This stunning new work is a perfect read for those who enjoy dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
5. The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase, Alison Watts (translator)
Following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, one dog changes the life of everyone who takes him in on his five-year journey to reunite with his beloved first owner, Hikaru, a boy who has not spoken since the natural disaster.
In this inspiring tribute to the bond between humans and dogs and the life-affirming power of connection, this bestselling, award-winning novel weaves a feel-good tale of survival, resilience, and love beyond measure.
6. People from my Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, Ted Goosen (translator)
An old man with two shadows, one docile and one rebellious; a bossy child who lives under a white cloth near a tree; a diplomat no one has ever seen who goes fishing at an artificial lake no one has ever heard of. These are some of the inhabitants of People From My Neighborhood.
This novel is an eerie, surreal and funny collection of 26 stories that fans of magical realism will enjoy. The stories all come together to paint a portrait of a town where the lines between reality and magic are thin and the shadows hold all manner of surprises.
7. Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu, Morgan Giles (translator)
Korean-Japanese writer Miri Yu recounts the story of Kazu, a man whose ghost haunts a park near Ueno Station. The novel follows Kazu’s life, from his work at the 1964 Olympics to his time living as a homeless person after experiencing the traumatic event of the 2011 tsunami. This modern classic is a powerful rebuke to the Imperial system and an empathetic depiction of the lives of the homeless.
8. Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura, Philip Gabriel (translator)
Seven students are avoiding going to school, isolating themselves in their bedrooms, unable to reach out to family or friends. That is until they discover a portal that offers an escape from their nightmarish lives. In the magical world, the children take refuge in the castle during the day. The students are tasked with locating a key hidden in the castle that will allow whoever finds it to be granted one wish. However, both the castle and any memories of their adventure will vanish once they find it. There is only one rule: they must leave by 5pm every afternoon. Otherwise they will be eaten by the Wolf Queen.
This heart-warming novel is full of joy and hope for anyone touched by sadness and vulnerability, and who are scared of reaching out to others.
Written by Anna Alandete
19.10.2022
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