Asian Literature

Haunting, elegiac and profound, Where Reasons End charts the process of parental grief through a mother’s imagined conversation with her dead son. With lyrical economy and deep compassion, Li crafts a tender, humane novel of love, loss and...

Told from the perspective of a 14-year old boy subjected to relentless bullying, Heaven handles its difficult theme with both searing honesty and startling grace. From the bestselling author of Breast and Eggs and international literary sensation...

A haunting novella of fame and disillusionment by a Japanese literary icon.All eyes are upon Rikio. And he likes it, mostly. His fans cheer from a roped-off section, screaming and yelling to attract his attention. They would kill for a moment alone with...

SHORTLISTED for the International Booker Prize 2022.After Rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit...

Of all the great Japanese novelists, Kobe Abe was indubitably the most versatile. With The Ruined Map, he crafted a mesmerizing literary crime novel that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the psychological depth of Dostoevsky.Mr...

Murakami tells the true story behind an act of terrorism that turned an average Monday morning into a national disaster.In spite of the perpetrators' intentions, the Tokyo gas attack left only twelve people dead, but thousands were injured and many...

An ordinary house on an ordinary street becomes a pit of unimaginable darkness in this truly nerve-shattering psychological thriller from the author of Little Eve. This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an...

A prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about the mother of all deceptions: a woman in Tokyo avoids harassment at work by perpetuating, for nine months and beyond, the lie that she’s pregnantWhen thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a...

In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known-and controversial-writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end fits into none of them.   At...

A tale of youth and warped masculinity, this is the suspenseful, lyrical and page-turning Japanese classic. A band of thirteen-year-old boys reject the stupidity of the adult world. They decide it is illusory, hypocritical and sentimental, and train...

Tokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders - rich provincial families, a new and powerful political and social elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family - members of...

A dizzying short story collection that displays Murakami's genius for uncovering the surreal in the everyday, the extraordinary within the ordinary.*Featuring the story 'Barn Burning', the inspiration behind the Palme d'Or nominated...

In After the Banquet, Mishima draws a portrait of a marriage in which lofty principles clash fatally with appetite and ambition. For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. But when the middle-aged...

Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has been soured by infidelity. One day, by chance, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her...

From the author of the international bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this book follows four new customers who hope to travel back in time in a little Japanese café.In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving...

From the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Rainbow is a sweeping narrative of three interwoven half-sisters and their evolving concept of family. With plenty of unexpected twists and an engagingly empathetic tone, this is...

A fascinating discovery, Kawabata’s unfinished final novel Dandelions is a great master’s last word   A fascinating discovery, Dandelions is Kawabata's final novel, left incomplete when he committed suicide in 1972...

Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this is a unique and wonderfully creepy tale that is sure to delight Murakami fans. 'All I did was go to the library to borrow some books'. On his way home from school, the young narrator of The Strange Library...

Part romance, part detective story, Sputnik Sweetheart tells the story of a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited love. K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At...

A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel,...