Facing the Bridge by Yoko Tawada, translated with an afterword by Margaret Mitsutani [in Bloomsbury Review]
If I were to make my mother the happiest mother in the world, I’d finish at least one of my PhDs by writing that elusive dissertation on Yoko Tawada and her fantastical, enigmatic, revisionist, ambiguous short...
The latest from one of Japan’s leading novelists is another signature piece in which the unexpected should be anticipated. It’s just before midnight and teenaged Mari reads a thick, unnamed book in a well-lit Denny’s in...
“Beat” Takeshi Kitano, most widely known as an acclaimed filmmaker, is indeed a Renaissance man. Besides making films, he’s an actor, comedian, major TV personality, poet, painter, and novelist – and most likely more. While he...
Making the playground rounds in hopes of finding a community among stay-at-home moms and their children has left Sayoko lonelier than ever. When she gets a job offer from single, brash, energetic Aoi, she immediately signs...
Four short stories and a longer novella are linked together to create a mosaic of disparate voices that share a visceral longing for a time – and place – forever past. Chu adroitly leads readers through...
Considered to be one of the great writers of 20th-century China since she hit the literary scene in the 1940s with a mighty bang, Chang died in obscurity in Los Angeles in 1995. Recently rediscovered thanks...
This single-story novella, to be released simultaneously with the eponymous film by Ang Lee, was undoubtedly inspired by Chang’s own relationship with a Japanese collaborator during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and Hong Kong. As part...
Volume 1: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945
Volume 2: From 1945 to the Present
The two volumes together offer the most comprehensive overview of modern Japanese literature available in translation. Capturing the most turbulent period of Japan –...
Schadenfreude, of German origin, means joy at someone's distress or misfortune – surely not the best of human reactions. But publishers have turned misery into a veritable gold mine with an endless array of voyeuristic best-sellers....
From the “godfather of manga” – who also had a medical degree! – comes the first English translation of the mysterious story of a dedicated young doctor, Kirihito Osanai, who is initially sent to a remote...
Here’s the updated second edition of what was already considered the definitive overview of modern Chinese literature in English translation, with representative writing from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. With China poised to become a...
Marjane Satrapi on the "Axis of Evil," Cheese, and Exploring Family History
Marjane Satrapi changed my reading life. Before I picked up
Considered one of Korea’s best modernist poets, Kim produced just one collection during his brief life – he died tragically (perhaps deliberately) of an opium overdose at just 32 years. That single collection, Azaleas, is available...
Buddha, Volume 1: Kapilavastu
Buddha, Volume 2: The Four Encounters
Buddha, Volume 3: Devadatta
Buddha, Volume 4: The Forest of Uruvela
Buddha, Volume 5: Deer Park
Buddha, Volume 6: Ananda
Buddha, Volume 7: Prince Ajatasattu
Buddha, Volume 8: Jetavana
Graphic novels are big...
Far atop the High Altai Mountains in western Mongolia is an unpredictable climate of extremes – breathtaking in its warmer beauty, yet unforgiving in the harshness of its frigid months. Unknown to most Westerners, the Republic...
For the average American, Tibet is not so much a troubled faraway land, but an ethereal concept marked by the kind face of the Dalai Lama, often in the company of devotee Richard Gere.
“In the West,...
Putting Ruth Ozeki's name on a book's cover is an unconditional guarantee that I will buy that book. And I'm not alone: Ozeki's novels My Year of Meats and All Over Creation have been international successes.
The...
Originally published in 1951, the final novel from Hayashi – undoubtedly one of Japan’s most important women writers of the 20th century – traces a tormented, destructive love affair. When they meet, Yukiko and Tomioka are...
That’s 1969, when student uprisings shut down Tokyo University, the Beatles put out The White Album, the Rolling Stones released “Honky Tonk Women,” and war raged on in Vietnam. In a Japanese small city high school,...
What first-time teacher Fumi Kotani lacks in experience, she makes up with unflagging devotion to her first-grade students, taking special interest in a misunderstood, silent boy who raises flies. With the guidance of an...