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 gets into used books, guessing the 2024 NBA Long List for Fiction, and a couple of real bummer stories in today's book news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-28 21:45:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this
From fairy porn to romantasy via the Omegaverse, publishing is sexier than ever. The reason? A big shift in gen Z and millennial attitudes to respectability and shame ...I spent a fortnight reading nothing but smut and I don’t need to give you a reason. But since there is one, here it is:... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-06 04:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Founded in 2013, Letters Bookshop in Durham, N.C., is transforming from a privately owned business to a community-supported cooperative, selling shares for $116, in an aim to sustain the store in amid a challenging retail environment. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Kevin Barry’s The Heart in Winter, Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. * 1. The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-31 12:18:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I love it when a text centers the dynamics of conversation. In my own life, talking to others gets me out of my head, and introduces me to possibilities I would never have dreamed of alone. I think of a quote by the activist Valerie Kaur, which my local bookshop has printed on some of […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-06-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger, Daniel Handler’s And Then? and Then? What Else?, and Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. * 1. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-31 08:57:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bookshop and arts centre run by Salmon Poetry is saved from closure after raising more than €60,000 from 700 individualsA bookshop and arts centre run by a prominent Irish poetry publisher has been saved from closure after a GoFundMe campaign raised more than €60,000 – enough to buy new premises... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-13 15:18:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
5 Questions for Ethel Rohan, by Michelle Johnson Interviews [email protected] Tue, 04/16/2024 - 08:28 Ethel Rohan’s second novel, Sing, I, was published by TriQuarterly Books on April 15. The novel’s heroine, Ester Prynn, works in a convenience... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-16 13:28:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
During the summer of 1896, a poster of a redheaded woman riding a bicycle appeared in bookshop windows and newsstands in cities across the United States. Sporting a fashionable outfit, the cyclist gazes blankly beyond the viewer, seeming to exert little effort. Though her body occupies most of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-03 08:55:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis, Tessa Hulls’ Feeding Ghosts, and Kristine S. Ervin’s Rabbit Heart all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. * 1. Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-29 08:55:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything”... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Who among us hasn’t wished that they could get paid to just sit and read for a little while? No strings, no work-related tasks involved—just good old fashioned American currency in exchange for reading a book of your choosing, for pleasure. Well, fellow dreamers, I have good news! Perelandra... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-06 17:56:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There’s a new online bookstore in town—and this time it’s helmed by RuPaul. Yes, that RuPaul. (Reading being, after all, fundamental.) Allstora, announced today*, is a membership-based bookstore that offers a profit-split to authors. RuPaul serves as Allstora’s Chief Creative Officer and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-04 16:45:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
As VML's chief creative officer of Innovation for North America, Walter T. Geer III has a strong pulse on culture. His beginnings go back to the early digital media days, where he is behind the patents of multiple ad units marketers might remember adding to media plans... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2024-02-26 19:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Before running the bookshop, Yeongju had never considered whether she was suitable to be a bookseller. She thought, rather naively, that anyone who loves books could be one. It was only when she started her own bookshop that she realized she had a serious shortcoming. She fumbled questions such... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-23 09:44:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this
10 Questions for Hwang Bo-reum, by Michelle Johnson Interviews [email protected] Tue, 02/20/2024 - 10:01 Photo by Seong Ji Min Clayhouse Inc.Hwang Bo-reum’s debut novel, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, translated by Shanna Tan, was published... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-02-20 16:01:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“I pulled the Fitzgerald off a shelf in the bookshop where I had a summer job. It was so delicious and joyful to read, I could canter through it with such bright and sudden pleasure, that it felt almost criminal.” Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2024-02-01 15:52:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
From the shock and awe of labour to domestic isolation, a wave of recent novels captures the transformative nature of being a motherThey say nothing prepares you. Before having my baby, I approached the literature of motherhood as though I were about to sit an exam. If my studies tempered the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-20 11:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This conversation is a combination of two discussions, one on November 9th 2023 at the event of Philip Pullman receiving the Bodley Medal at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the other on November 10th 2023 at a launch event for Philip Goff’s book Why? The Purpose of the Universe at Blackwells... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-19 09:54:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this