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Botchan
In a translation by J.Cohn, Botchan, is the fourth title by Natsume Sōseki to be published by Penguin Classics, previous titles have included; Sanshiro, translated by Jay Rubin, Kusamakura and...
View ArticleMurakami re-published
Vintage Books have recently re-published and re-jacketed Murakami's back catalogue, along with this they have reissued Jay Rubin's book Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words with it's original cover...
View ArticleDescendants of Cain
Another find over at the Hathi Trust Digital Library is Arishima Takeo's 1917 story Descendants of Cain/Kain no Matsuei, translated by John W. Morrison. The story is featured in Morrison's book Modern...
View ArticleMo Yan wins the 2012 Nobel Prize
Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, have you read Mo Yan?, Nobel Prize.org would like to know for their poll, I voted a yes as sometime ago I read the short story collection...
View ArticleFive Strange Tales from Tokyo
A post that I had on hold just in case, but after my dreadful oversight in thinking that Strange Tales of Tokyo/Tokyo Ki tansyu hadn't appeared in English translation, I thought that I'd better...
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69 by Murakami Ryu
Practically found myself being pulled through this novel, as at first appearances I'd anticipated that it might read a little like Murakami doing Murakami as the theme and setting have some undeniable...
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a man with no talents
A Man With No Talents/San'ya gakeppuchi nikki, Oyama Shiro's highly engaging memoir from 2000 covers the period of him moving from Kamagasaki, one of the largest quarters in Japan for day labourers in...
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Tatsumi
Tatsumi directed by Eric Khoo, is an animated biographical film of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which dips into Tatsumi'sADrifting Life, the film achieves a fantastic balance between biography and adaption,...
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Tales of Tono
Perhaps it's something about this time of year that sets my reading interests wandering away from Japanese Literature, it's hard to fathom the real reason for this, I think I remember it happening to...
View ArticleThe Last Hour of the Bengal Tiger
A story I think from Yoko Ogawa's forthcoming collection Revenge, The Last Hour of the Bengal Tiger, translated by Stephen Snyder can be read over at online magazine Guernica, in another note it's also...
View ArticleKotoko
Kotoko directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto won the best film Orizzonti Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2011, the film exhibits some of Tsukamoto's trademark techniques, shaking camera work, the...
View Articlenon-fiction for 2013
Like my previous post on forthcoming titles I thought I'd begin to compile a post of some noted non-fiction titles due in 2013 that seem to be grabbing my attention at the moment, no doubt I'll add to...
View ArticleBullfight
Another title to add to the list of books to look out for next year is Inoue Yasushi's Bullfight/Togyu, a notable novella as it in turn won Inoue the Akutagawa Prize. Translated by Michael Emmerich the...
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God's Boat by Kaori Ekuni
God's Boat/Kamisama no boto by Ekuni Kaori, in a translation by Chikako Kobayashi has recently been published Thames River Press, although quite brief the novel is striking for it's being narrated...
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"'Love'" and Other Stories
When it comes to anthologies and collections I've a tendency not to read them cover to cover but to slowly read them story by story over a period of time, recently I've read...
View ArticleHarlequin's Butterfly
Among other great offerings, (which also include translations of Chuya Nakahara by Christian Nagle), the January 2013 issue of Asymtote features a tantalizing translated extract of Toh EnJoe's...
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101 Modern Japanese Poems
Another title selected from the lists of the JLPP from Thames River Press is this welcome and wide ranging anthology of modern Japanese poems originally compiled and prefaced by Makoto Ōoka back in...
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Citadel in Spring by Agawa Hiroyuki
Recently looking through some old posts that I'd kept hidden away for an unknown reason I found this post I'd written some years ago on Hiroyuki Agawa's novel, Citadel inSpring, not sure why it hadn't...
View ArticleLast Fragments of Winter
The transition of literary works to film is something that's constantly fascinating me, perhaps like most readers I find that often when reading I tend to envision novels, stories, poems in a...
View ArticleThree new titles from Thames River Press
More good news from Thames River Press who are due to publish another three titles from the JLPP list in May, click the titles to redirect to the publisher's page ~ In Pursuit of LavenderBy Akiko...
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