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.
181.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
EN
Description:
The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by . . . The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that ma... continue
182.
The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki
EN
Description:
'This Year I Intend To Begin Writing Freely About A Topic Which, In The Past, I Have Hesitated To Mention Even Here. I Have Always Avoided Commenting On My Sexual Relations With Ikuko, For Fear That She Might Surreptitiously Read My Diary And Be Offended-'So Begins The Key - A Forthright And Moving Tale Of A Middle-Aged Man Deeply In Love With His Younger Wife. In Spite Of That Love, They Have Grown Physically Apart, Each Unsure Of The Other'S Thoughts And Desires-Until The Day Ikuko Discovers The Key To Her Husband'S Diary With Its Desperate Hints Of Jealousy And Voyeurism. The Key, She Reali... continue
183.
The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
EN
Description:
A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, set in a future where the old live almost-forever and children's lives are all too brief.
185.
The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito
EN
Description:
Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito presents brand-new nightmares! What destiny awaits them after the screaming? After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a “weeping woman”—a professional mourner—sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. Mako changes afterward—she can’t stop crying! In another tale, having decided to die together, a couple enters Aokigahara, the infamous suicide forest. What is the shocking torrent they discover there? One of horror’s greatest talents, Junji Ito beckons readers to join him in an experience of ultimate terror with four new stories... continue
186.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya
EN
Description:
Winner of the Akutagawa Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, these eleven surreal tales, set in the offices, zoos, bus stops, boutiques, and homes of contemporary Japan "are reminiscent, at least to this reader, of Joy Williams and Rivka Galchen and George Saunders" (Weike Wang, The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice). In the English-language debut of one of Japan’s most fearlessly inventive young writers a housewife takes up bodybuilding and sees radical changes to her physique, which her workaholic husband fails to notice. A boy waits at a bus stop, mocking commuters struggling to keep... continue
188.
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
EN
Description:
'An exquisite novel about four sisters living though a turbulent decade...I'd put it in the 10 greatest books of the 20th century' David Mitchell 'A near-perfect novel' Hanya Yanagihara In the years leading up to the Second World War, four sisters live in dilapidated houses in Osaka and Ashiya, and each navigate their own complex, personal relationship to the fading lustre of the Makioka family name. Rich with breathtaking descriptions of ancient customs and an ever-changing natural world, Junichiro Tanizaki evokes in loving detail a long-lost way of life even as it withers under the harsh gla... continue
189.
The Makioka Sisters : Vintage Classics Japanese Series by JUNICHIRO. TANIZAKI
EN
Description:
'An exquisite novel about four sisters living though a turbulent decade...I'd put it in the 10 greatest books of the 20th century' David Mitchell 'A near-perfect novel' Hanya Yanagihara In the years leading up to the Second World War, four sisters live in dilapidated houses in Osaka and Ashiya, and each navigate their own complex, personal relationship to the fading lustre of the Makioka family name. Rich with breathtaking descriptions of ancient customs and an ever-changing natural world, Junichiro Tanizaki evokes in loving detail a long-lost way of life even as it withers under the harsh gla... continue
190.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel) by Nagaru Tanigawa
EN
Description:
Haruhi holds the fate of the universe in her hands . . . lucky for you she doesn't know it! Meet Haruhi - a cute, determined girl, starting high school in a city where nothing exciting happens and absolutely no one understands her. Meet Kyon - the sarcastic guy who sits behind Haruhi in homeroom and the only boy Haruhi has ever opened up to. His fate is now tied to hers. Meet the S.O.S. Brigade - an after-school club organized by Haruhi with a mission to seek out the extraordinary. Oh, and their second mission? Keeping Haruhi happy . . . because even though she doesn't know it, Haruhi has the ... continue