Books from Japan
231 popular japanese books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Asia Challenge" were written by authors from Japan.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
11.
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami EN
Description:
FINALIST for the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction A BEST BOOK OF 2022 Oprah Daily・TIME Magazine・Washington Post・Publishers Weekly・Lit Hub Bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami invites readers back into her immediately recognizable fictional world with this new, extraordinary novel and demonstrates yet again why she is one of today's most uncategorizable, insightful, and talented novelists. Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contac... continue
12.
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami EN
Description:
From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami comes a deeply moving and magnificently observed story about a young woman searching for meaning.
13.
Amintirea palidă a munţilor by Kazuo Ishiguro RO
Description:
Romanul "Amintirea palida a muntilor", nominalizat la Booker Prize, a primit The Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, acordat de Royal Society of Literature.
"Amintirea palida a muntilor" este povestea melancolica a lui Etsuko, o japoneza care traieste singura in Anglia, straduindu-se sa exorcizeze un trecut bintuit de cosmarul celui de-al Doilea Razboi Mondial si sa se impace cu sinuciderea fiicei sale mai mari, Keiko. Amintirile sale se concentreaza insa asupra unei legaturi de amicitie din tinerete cu o alta tinara, Sachiko, si cu ciudata ei fiica, Mariko. Povestea centrala ... continue
14.
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro EN
Description:
A Japanese artist looks back on his life in this celebrated and prize-winning novel.
15.
An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura EN
Description:
Minae Mizumura's An I-Novel is a semi-autobiographical work that takes place over the course of a single day in the 1980s. This formally daring novel radically broke with Japanese literary tradition and offers a luminous meditation on how a person becomes a writer.
16.
Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate EN
Description:
Astral Season, Beastly Season is the debut novel by Japanese writer Tahi Saihate. The story follows Morishita and Yamashiro, two high-school boys approaching the age in life when they must choose what kind of people they want to be. When their favourite J-pop idol kills and dismembers her boyfriend, Morishita and Yamashiro unite to convince the police that their idol's act was in fact by them. This thrilling novel is a meditation on belonging, the objectification of young popstars, and teenage alienation.
17.
At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender : Life Lessons from a 50-Year-Old After Two Decades of Self-Discovery by Arai Shou EN
Description:
At age 30, Shou Arai came to a realization; they had no gender. Now they were faced with a question they'd never really considered: how to age in a society where everything is so strongly segregated between two genders? This autobiographical manga explores Japanese culture surrounding gender, transgender issues, and the day to day obstacles faced by gender minorities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community with a lighthearted, comedic attitude.
18.
Description:
This thought-provoking and intriguing tale, by the Akutagawa Prize-nominated master short story writer Kanji Hanawa, revolves around the extraordinary real story of the seven-year-old boy who went missing in the bear-inhabited forests of northern Japan for six whole days in 2016, after his parents had apparently abandoned him as a punishment. In Backlight, a child is left alone at the side of a road in the mountains of Hokkaido in northern Japan by his parents. When they return moments later, the boy is gone. Ishida, a Professor of Psychology is enlisted as part of the search team. As days pas... continue
19.
Bakemonogatari, Part 1 by NISIOISIN EN
Description:
There’s a girl at their school who is always ill. She routinely arrives late, leaves early, or doesn’t show up at all, and skips gym as a matter of course. She’s pretty, and the boys take to whispering that she’s a cloistered princess. As the self-described worst loser in her class soon finds out, they just don’t know what a monster she is. So begins a tale of mysterious maladies that are supernatural in origin yet deeply revealing of the human psyche, a set of case files as given to unexpected feeling as it is to irreverent humor. So begins the legendary novel that kicked off the MONOGATARI s... continue
20.
Barefoot Gen : A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa EN
Description:
GRAPHIC NOVELS: MANGA. Beautiful new hardcover edition of Barefoot Gen Volume One! Striking new design with special sturdy binding for institutional use. August 6, 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Today, the danger posed by nuclear weapons is as great as ever, yet few people survive who witnessed their horror. To mark the event, and honor Keiji Nakazawa's incredible work, Last Gasp created a special set of Barefoot Gen, volumes 1-4 for institutional use. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian... continue