Woman on the Other Shore: A Novel by Mitsuyo Kakuta, translated by Wayne P. Lammers [in Bloomsbury Review]
01 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation
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...
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...
Ruffling Feathers: An Interview with Novelist Sabina Murray
Sabina Murray’s published output over the past five years has been substantial by anyone’s standards: three books, five screenplays, umpteen short stories, and winning the prestigious 2003 PEN/Faulkner Award....
Another precocious debut – this one by a Princeton freshman who began the novel at 15 and won the PUSH Novel Contest at 17. Big Man on Campus-Caesar (real name John, but called Caesar because all...
This Chinese American installment of the Sex in the City-genre features three 20-something childhood best-friends, each pursuing her own brand of happiness in Manhattan. While it starts off with a rather cringe-inducing visit to a Chinatown...
Don’t start this at night because you won’t get any sleep until you’ve finished the final page. And still, the characters will linger on. Min’s aching debut novel tells the story of Isadora Myung Hee Sohn...
Seattle lifestyle guru Deirdre McIntosh’s life turns upside down when her Live Simple television show is suddenly cancelled, her live-in best friend decides to move in with his new soulmate and her bank account is about...
A young woman abandons her promising corporate job to seek out and photograph the scattered stories of women around the world. This slim, densely packed debut gives voice to eight questioning souls – some silenced by...
I have to admit that I had never heard of Indian graphic novels (just not on my radar, even though I have a heavy South Asian diasporic literary bent because...
Well, no wonder why I hadn't heard of Indian graphic novels until discovering Sarnath Banerjee! I wasn't alone as his debut title, Corridor, was widely marketed as Indian's first graphic novel! Although, that's apparently incorrect information...
Tarun Tejpal's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, begins and ends with the same words - but with a completely different meaning by book's end. Over the course of 518 pages, an unnamed writer takes a...
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...
Another bittersweet weep-fest of watching a child grow up, much along the lines of Robert Munsch’s timeless I Love You Forever. A parent's everlasting love, stunningly rendered by last year’s Caldecott-winning Jon Muth.
Review: "TBR's Contributing Editors'...
While her husband Da Chen writes sweeping literary historical sagas, newcomer Sunny offers a contemporary entertaining tale of young Mona Lisa who discovers she has latent super-powers. Turns out our heroine is actually half-Monère, an ancient...
What a beginning: a snowstorm, a home birth, surprise twins, and a split-second decision by a father to give away his Down Syndrome-daughter while his wife believes their lost child has died. While the small leftover...
Author of bestselling memoirs Colors of the Mountain and Sounds of the River, Da Chen debuts his first novel for adults. The sprawling saga, set in late-20th-century China, follows the inevitably intertwined lives of two brothers...
A fluffy, fast read to warm the heart: gorgeous Lakshmi hides behind glasses as she looks deep into others’ lives while helping women find the perfect sari. Always the dutiful daughter, she agrees to her matchmaking...
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...