28 February 2012
Crossfire is the third novel by Miyuki Miyabe to be published in English. Originally this was a bestseller in Japan and was adapted into a movie in 2000 called Pyrokinesis [クロスファイア]. It was directed by Shusuke Kaneko [金子 修介], and starred Akiko Yada [矢田亜希子] and Hideaki Ito [伊藤 英明]. Miyabe is a full time writer and has received numerous literary prizes including the Naoki Prize.
16 February 2012
The Devil’s Whisper [魔術はささやく], By Miyuki Miyabe [宮部 みゆき], translated by Deborah Stuhr Iwabuchi, Kodansha International, 2007 (originally published in 1989, Tokyo), 264 pages, £8.99, ISBN 4770031173 Review by Michael Sullivan Miyuki Miyabe was born in 1960 in Tokyo, she has been writing since the 1980s and a number of her books have been adapted [...]
3 February 2012
by Yukinobu Hoshino, translated by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Hiromi Uchida and Timothy Clark, British Museum Press, 2011, 264 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0714124650, £14.99 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This is the English version of an original Japanese Manga book. It was translated into English by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere with Uchida Hiromi and Timothy Clark. It has [...]
2 February 2012
by Lian Hearn, Quercus Publishing, 2011, 400 pages, ISBN 978-0-85738-297-9, £12.99 Review by Ali Muskett Blossoms and Shadows by Lian Hearn (real name Gillian Rubinstein), is set in 19th century Japan, and is narrated by fictional character Tsuru. The daughter of a doctor, Tsuru is raised in a world of medicine where, due to cultural [...]
1 February 2012
by Taichi Yamada [山田 太一], translated by Michael Emmerich, Faber and Faber Limited, 2006 (originally published in 1989, Tokyo), 183 pages, £8.99, ISBN 0571229719. Review by Michael Sullivan Taichi Yamada [山田 太一] was born in 1934 in Tokyo, he has worked as a screenwriter for television and film. In 1987 his novel Strangers [異人たちとの夏] was [...]
7 April 2011
by David Mitchell, Sceptre/Hodder and Stoughton, 2010, 469 pages, ISBN 978-0-340-92156-2 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This readable historical novel set in Japan has been well reviewed in the national press. Many Japan Society members will have read about it and some may already have read the book. Anyone interested in the life of the [...]
6 April 2011
by Atsushi Nakajima, Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner, Autumn Hill Books, 2010, 182 pages ISBN:9780982746608 Review by Adam House Atsushi Nakajima (中島 敦) was born in Tokyo in 1909, his father came from a family of scholars specializing in the classics of ancient China, this would not only influence his reading but would [...]
15 December 2010
Watching the river flowing under Ochanomizu Bridge, we read as Akaki (our narrator) muses on bridges mentioned in the stories of Kafu, and also that of Gogol, another of his favourite authors. He’s on the bridge waiting to meet a man called Yamakawa, we follow his thoughts on Gogol and that in his student days he had a khaki overcoat, where is it now?
14 December 2010
The Year of No Money in Tokyo,
by Wayne Lionel Aponte, Watkins and McKay,
2009, 168 pages, ISBN 0982055005
Review by William Farr
21 June 2010
by Lesley Downer
Bantam Press, 2010, 352 pages, ISBN-10: 0593057937, £12.99
Review by Elizabeth Ingrams
