Japanese, Chinese, Korean & Other Literature Books

Essentially the start of Dazai's career, Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against them–a theme...

Two brilliant, multi-layered stories from the winner of the Kenzaburo Oe Prize: part of our Japanese novella series, showcasing the best contemporary Japanese writing.On the eve of the Iraq War, a man and a woman meet in a nightclub in Tokyo. They go to...

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living...

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.The Melancholy of Resistance, Laszlo Krasznahorkai's magisterial, surreal novel, depicts a chain of mysterious events in a small Hungarian town. A circus, promising to display the stuffed body of the...

Author of The Savage Detectives and 2666. Crushed by a devastating scandal, university professor Óscar Amalfitano flees Barcelona for Santa Teresa—a Mexican city close to the U.S. border, where women are being killed in staggering numbers...

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ADVERSARY.'What would you say if I shaved off my mustache?" asks The Moustache's hero of his wife. Once removed, his wife and friends not only fail to recognize him, but deny the existence of the former mustache altogether. A...

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But, Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have...

‘The strangest thing about jealousy is that it can populate an entire city – the whole world – with a person you may never have met.’ These words set the framework for The Possession, a striking portrait of a woman after a...

The power dynamics of the office are never more obvious than when it comes to food: mandatory lunches with the boss, the colleague who tries to curry favour with home-baked goods, discovering the discarded remnants of someone else's late-night binge . . ...

A celebrated new translation of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece reveals the “social problems facing our own society” (Nation). Published to great acclaim and fierce controversy in 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment has left...

For the first time—and in the best translation ever—the complete Book of Disquiet, a masterpiece beyond comparison. The Book of Disquiet is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa’s greatest literary achievement. An...

Finally back in print, a frighteningly lucid feminist horror story about marriageThe Dry Heart begins and ends with the matter-of-fact pronouncement: “I shot him between the eyes.” As the tale—a plunge into the chilly waters of...

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. From the author of Before...

Winner of the inaugural Novel Prize, an elegant and subtle exploration of the mysteries of our relationships to others.  A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the...

A haunting, bizarre short story collection about violence, mental illness, and the warped contradictions of the twentieth-century female experience.  A close friend and protégé of Marguerite Duras, Barbara Molinard (1921–1986)...

(Available after December 30th, 2022)For the first time in English, literary icon Marguerite Duras's foundational masterpiece about a young woman's existential breakdown in the deceptively peaceful French countryside.The Easy Life is the story of...

(Available after April 30th, 2023)Originally published in 1945, this book of poetic prose encapsulates former journalist Elizabeth Smart’s relationship with poet George Barker. Instantly, upon picking up a book of his poetry while browsing through a...

From the author of the bestselling If Cats Disappeared from the World comes another beautifully heartwarming novel full of hope and love, as a son races against time to piece together the truth behind his mother's lost year.  FROM THE...

In the wake of the Great Blackout, faced with the near-extinction of humanity, a pair of lovers speak to each other. They parse, with precision, with familiarity, the endless aspects of their love. Out of their dialogues, piece by piece, a composite...

A counter-prophet attempts the impossible to prove his power; a girl sees the hideous fate of her sister and father in a mirror bought from a gypsy; the death of a prostitute causes an unanticipated uprising; and the lives of every ordinary person since...