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 ]
Philip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth (Penguin/David Fickling) has soared 15 places to top the Amazon Charts Most-Sold: Fiction chart, in the same week it sold 54,301 copies in hardback through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-09 20:59:35 UTC ]
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Ahead of Bookshop Day, bookshop owner Sarah Dennis highlights what makes independent bookshops special. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 03:15:59 UTC ]
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Retailers are gearing up for a bumper Super Thursday ahead of this Saturday's Bookshop Day 2019 when events will be taking place up and down the country. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-03 08:58:18 UTC ]
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ONE DAY IN a Los Angeles bookshop in the mid-1970s, a thick City Lights softcover with a stark black-and-white spine magnetized a suburban adolescent’s eyeballs. “BUKOWSKI” the cover read at the top in big block letters, and at the bottom, in smaller letters: “Erections, Ejaculations,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-01 17:00:44 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (Vintage) has spent a third week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 23,078 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-01 11:27:57 UTC ]
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Jeffrey Archer, Marian Keyes and Stacey Halls were among the authors at this year's Bertrams Christmas conference which saw Abingdon indie Mostly Books win bookshop of the year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-30 10:31:00 UTC ]
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Independent bookseller Topping & Co will open a new bookshop in central Edinburgh this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-25 21:51:55 UTC ]
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“10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World” is a scathing critique of her country’s cultural hypocrisy. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-25 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The Booker Prize has reassured readers the £50,000 literary award has “not yet been decided” – after a bookshop mistakenly branded copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments with a “winner” sticker. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-17 10:52:14 UTC ]
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Prep this year's fall TBR with these excellent speculative fiction books about terrorism, future worlds, time travel and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-09-17 10:40:28 UTC ]
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Quercus held a sales conference with a difference yesterday by sending out its teams to booksellers around the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-12 08:22:12 UTC ]
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Travel book specialists Stanfords has opened a specialist food bookshop in a joint venture with street food pioneers KERB "to showcase London’s food and cultural history through literature". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 04:36:19 UTC ]
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Jamie Oliver’s Veg (Michael Joseph) has continued to prove fruitful in its third week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, with its volume through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM rising 22.5% week on week to 37,951 copies sold. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-10 10:23:31 UTC ]
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Hachette UK and the Booksellers Association have launched a new £5,000 Sceptre Bookshop Award for stores that make an outstanding contribution to their community. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-09 10:33:41 UTC ]
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Ross Montgomery is joining the Walker Books list after the publisher landed two new fiction titles and a pair of picture books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-03 21:47:06 UTC ]
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Jamie Oliver’s Veg (Michael Joseph) has blossomed in its second week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, improving 28% in volume week on week to 30,974 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-03 00:11:58 UTC ]
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Notting Hill indie Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop will celebrate its 10th anniversary this autumn. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-29 17:39:42 UTC ]
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Jamie Oliver’s Veg (Michael Joseph) has leapt straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 24,261 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 05:37:15 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop will open its doors to customers in Bourne, Lincolnshire this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 01:26:30 UTC ]
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Police are investigating after burglars broke into London's Housmans Bookshop and stole the store's cash drawer and charity box last week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 10:02:54 UTC ]
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