Apollo’s Song by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh [in Bloomsbury Review]
I so love Vertical, the little publishing house that could, that continues to bring us some of the very best translations from Japan. From the godfather of manga himself comes the first English translation...
Here’s an inventive new manga series, this one by a woman. It's set in the future when humans have all but destroyed planet Earth. Those who have survived the collapse have created the era of...
While teenage readers will surely enjoy this manga too, adults can learn a little something about teenage dynamics. Shizuka Shiroyama, a thoughtful, timid young girl, suffers from the mysterious “Translucent Syndrome,” which means she cyclically starts...
This is a heavy tome, but it’s one of those impressive, erudite, must-have titles for anyone interested in Asian literature or literature in general. The Japanese were writing novels centuries before Don Quixote even chased his...
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...
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....
A spectacularly rendered coffee-table collection of the history of how some the best designed Japanese products – from furniture to appliances to toys to even the ubiquitous drip-free soy sauce bottle – ever got made. My...
While Tokyo is undoubtedly one the world’s most modern cosmopolitan centers, traditional neighborhoods of bygone eras still exist within the sprawling city – you just need an expert to show you where. With inviting photographs and...
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...
What's wrong with this picture?: An independent, cosmopolitan young woman, educated at Harvard and Oxford, proficient in six languages, who is on the fast track to becoming a diplomat in spite of a male-dominated society, gives...
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...
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...
A few cheesy, overwritten scenes aside, this is one stunning debut novel that will make you weak in the knees. Sam Hamada, U.S.-born but raised in Japan, arrives at age 9 in Hawai‘i in 1930 to...
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,...