From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?• Read an an exclusive Q&A with Haruki MurakamiAnyone who has been in a bookshop in the last few years will have noticed that Japanese fiction is experiencing an extraordinary boom. In 2022, figures from Nielsen BookScan showed that Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK. The dominance is even more striking this year: figures obtained by the Guardian show that, of the top 40 translated fiction titles for 2024 so far, 43% are Japanese, with Asako Yuzuki’s satirical, socially conscious crime novel Butter topping the list. Butter also won the breakthrough author award at this year’s Books Are My Bag readers awards, which are curated by booksellers and voted for by the public.The popularity of modern Japanese fiction is not a new phenomenon in the UK, of course. In the 1990s, two writers broke through and became cult hits in this country. Haruki Murakami, a worldwide literary phenomenon, took off in Britain when Harvill Press published The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in 1998. Scott Pack, who ran Waterstones’ buying team in the early 2000s, is a big Murakami fan and remembers giving him “lots of attention. Whatever books of his came out, we got massively behind.” This week, Murakami publishes his 15th novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls, about a man who travels... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-23 09:00:37 UTC ]
Look for the green stucco house with a porch near the Mt. Washington Whole Foods. Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2020-10-07 22:23:53 UTC ]
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The Victoria & Albert Museum is closing its dedicated bookshop and making 103 roles redundant across its retail and visitor experience teams as the Covid-19 crisis hits its finances. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 09:58:53 UTC ]
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Hachette Children’s Group has acquired two middle-grade fiction titles by debut author Kate Gilby Smith, to be published on the Orion Children's Book imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-02 10:02:53 UTC ]
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Love in Colour by Bolu BabalolaEvery story in this collection of love stories by Bolu Babalola has been adapted from ancient folklore from all around the world. Babalola chooses to centre women in these stories, giving the women unique and passionate perspectives on love. While the original... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-10-01 09:59:00 UTC ]
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Independent press Little Toller is to open a bookshop in the Dorset town of Beaminster next month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-24 21:34:39 UTC ]
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In the early summer of 1994, I walked into Alice’s Bookshop in North Carlton; a small shop in an old terrace on a straight boulevard that runs north out of Melbourne, Victoria. Being so close to the venerable sandstone of Melbourne University, there’s an old-fashioned gravity about the place.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-24 08:48:13 UTC ]
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IN THE LATE 1990s and early 2000s, millennials in the United States were tweens and teens, and the Harry Potter phenomenon hit hard. There was nothing so comforting in the face of overseas wars and 9/11 as a bit of Blairite neoliberalism from abroad: the British school novel wrapped up with a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-09-19 15:00:45 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) has charted top of the Bookstat e-book top 10 in its second week on sale, rising from third to score an across-formats double, after its hardback claimed the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 21:50:09 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) has topped the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction top 20 for a second week running, in the same week its hardback claimed a second week atop the UK Official Top 50 chart through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 05:52:35 UTC ]
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It's no secret that most authors are introverts. That doesn't mean that we don't enjoy bookshop events and literary festivals. Who doesn't love talking about their books or their writing process? But afterwards, we are spent, drained of energy, and need to recharge. Writing is a solitary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 01:39:18 UTC ]
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Booksellers have generally reacted enthusiastically to news that the US indie-focused retail site Bookshop.org is launching in the UK this November, although some remain cautious. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-13 19:17:12 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the first Sceptre Bookshop Award shortlist has been revealed, featuring independent retailers across the UK. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-09 22:30:21 UTC ]
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The London Review Bookshop has partnered with the MUBI streaming service for the broadcast of eight films to be accompanied by fortnightly conversations with writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-01 17:23:15 UTC ]
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Ross Bradshaw responds to an editorial on the boom in publishing We were interested to read that “Bookshops in big city centres … are wary of taking risks” (Editorial, 23 August), and that this autumn’s harvest includes books by Ant and Dec, Jilly Cooper and Arsène Wenger, which have the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-08-26 16:44:13 UTC ]
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Jamie Oliver's 7 Ways (Michael Joseph) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 34,241 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 18:56:55 UTC ]
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Many publishers are enjoying record sales – but not all. We must take care that those with the biggest names and deepest pockets are not the only beneficiariesAs the weather turns and the days shorten, as trees bend low with fruit and blackberries darken the hedges, bookshops are bracing for a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-08-23 17:25:02 UTC ]
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E-commerce firm Monwell has launched the Mail Bookshop with Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-19 17:01:04 UTC ]
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More than half of Tate's London bookshop staff are facing redundancy, with several roles in its books team and publishing operation also at risk, The Bookseller has learned. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-16 14:07:35 UTC ]
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Seeing unexpected pairings of readers and books quickly dispels the idea of who reads what• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldI have a party trick. If you name three books you like and two you hate, I can write you a reading list of 10 books you will love.I’ve gained this... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-08-15 10:00:40 UTC ]
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Hodder Faith, in partnership with mini-chain St Andrew’s Bookshop, will launch a national church book club this autumn, to be known as The Big Church Read. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 13:00:50 UTC ]
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