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 ]
Bookshop has helped many independents weather the pandemic, but some booksellers say the ABA is not being transparent about its financial relationship with the online retailer and worry that Bookshop poses new competition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun (Atom) rose 11 places to top the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction chart, as the Twilight reboot sold 62,460 copies in hardback to claim the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 02:23:16 UTC ]
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Interviews Richard van Leeuwen is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam. This year, he won the 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arabic Culture in Other Languages category for his book The Thousand and One Nights and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-08-10 20:32:46 UTC ]
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The Zoom call was going well. I liked the technology on show, and I felt bookshops could definitely benefit from using it. It provided a way of alerting the bookshop - ahead of a visit - when someone with a disability (or who needed additional help) would be arriving at the shop. Staff would be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:28:32 UTC ]
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Waterstones has announced the permanent closure of its bookshop in the Centre MK Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes, over “excessive” rent demanded from its landlord. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 18:17:36 UTC ]
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Jojo Moyes' The Giver of Stars (Penguin) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 25,331 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in its first full week on the shelves. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 00:24:26 UTC ]
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David Walliams and Tony Ross' The World's Worst Parents (HarperCollins Children's) has notched up a fourth week as the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 22,993 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-27 18:50:07 UTC ]
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Author Mark Dawson has attracted criticism after bulk buying his own book gave him a high chart position. But that isn’t breaking any rulesFor any author, being able to describe yourself as a bona fide bestseller is key to conferring your career with a certain gravitas – and will often bring you... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-20 15:59:35 UTC ]
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Around 35% of regular bookshop customers are unsure about returning to bricks and mortar premises now lockdown has eased, according to a survey by Nielsen. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 09:56:49 UTC ]
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In Michaela Coel’s excellent BBC TV series “I May Destroy You”, her character Arabella’s journey concludes in a bookshop with the launch of her self-published book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 06:11:20 UTC ]
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Profile Books will publish Shaun Bythell's Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops in November. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-08 23:31:01 UTC ]
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David’s Bookshop in Hertfordshire has been bought by its staff and remodelled as a John Lewis-style employee ownership trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 19:30:47 UTC ]
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Blogger and influencer Caroline Hirons' Skincare (HQ) shifted just under 33,000 copies through Nielsen BookScan in its first week on sale to become just the second fashion and beauty title to claim the UK's Official Top 50 number one—and the first for over 18 years. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-30 16:39:05 UTC ]
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Last week some £33m worth of printed books were sold through the Nielsen BookScan universe, including for the first time since the end of March high street bookshops in England and Northern Ireland. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-25 23:28:04 UTC ]
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After 12 long weeks, bookshops re-opened in England last week—and the book-buying public unquestionably chose bookshops. The UK lockdown from 23rd March closed bricks-and-mortar shops across the country, with supermarkets the only physical outlets to buy a book and Amazon dominating online... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-25 17:57:17 UTC ]
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Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury) has notched up a second week as the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 34,211 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-23 13:15:03 UTC ]
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Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Audible Studios for Bloomsbury) has held the Audible weekly number one, the same week it topped the Nielsen BookScan TCM chart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-19 10:08:40 UTC ]
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Publishing, including books, newspapers and magazines, could see a £7bn fall in revenue and 51,000 jobs axed due to Covid-19's effect on bookshop closures and print sales, a report claims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 06:06:17 UTC ]
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Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury) has leapt into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, making her the first black British author to hit the weekly overall number one in the Nielsen BookScan era. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-16 07:29:33 UTC ]
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Will browsing be allowed, or will we have to judge a book by its cover? With Waterstones and some indie shops set to open on 15 June, Alison Flood finds out what the plan isMelissa Davies had planned to fulfil a lifelong dream and open her independent bookshop, Pigeon Books, in Southsea, at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 UTC ]
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