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 ]
Lee Child and Paula Hawkins gave Transworld two fiction number ones last week, with Child nabbing his 11th top spot on the Official UK Top 50 since records began. Child’s 19th Jack Reacher book, Personal (Bantam), sold 31,994 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, shifting... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A third "Robert Galbraith" novel featuring detective Cormoran Strike, Career of Evil, will be published by Little, Brown this autumn, it has been confirmed. No precise publication date has yet been revealed. The first in the series authored by J K Rowling, The Cuckoo's Calling, was published... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books rose 3% in the quarter ended April 5, 2015, compared to the first quarter of 2014, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Who Anna Chlumsky Age 34 Claim to fame Stars as Amy on HBO's Veep (Season 4 premieres April 12 at 10:30 p.m.); currently appearing on Broadway in the play Living on Love (through Aug. 2) Base New York Twitter @AnnaChlumsky What's the first information you consume in the morning? I check... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon and Schuster Children’s Books has bought a new title in the Underpants series from author and illustrator team Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. The series was launched in 2007 with Aliens Love Underpants and includes titles such as Dinosaurs Love Underpants and Monsters Love Underpants,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Day titles claimed nine of the coveted positions in the Top 10 in the most successful WBD week since 2012. A combined total of 339,133 copies of the 10 books published to celebrate the annual charity reading event (held on Thursday 5th March) registered through Nielsen BookScan in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Founded in 2013, Peru's Animal de Invierno is drawing attention for its bold new fiction titles and literary translations. The post Peru’s Literary Publisher Animal de Invierno Strides Ahead appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent’s Tail is to bring out a novel by Karen Joy Fowler, Sister Noon, which appeared in the US in 2002 but which has never been published in the UK before. The indie publisher had success last autumn with Fowler’s Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel We Are All Completely Beside... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the cultural debate over the film American Sniper continues to swirl, the book on which it is based held the top three spots on the print bestseller list last week, according to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The self-help and graphic novels categories had the fastest growth in print book unit sales among adult segments in 2014, posting gains of 15% and 13%, respectively, compared to the previous year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's books dominated the top of the US book charts in 2014, Nielsen BookScan's full-year statistics have revealed. Seven children's titles hit the number one spot last year and claimed pole position for 39 of the 52 weeks ending 28th December. This included an unbroken run of 15 weeks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s book illustrator Penny Dann has died at the age of 50. She had been suffering from cancer. Dann, who died on Saturday 20th December, illustrated anthologies, early readers, fairytales and poetry collections, and most recently illustrated Polly Parrot Picks a Pirate (Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the three-week shopping season that began Thanksgiving week, Jeff Kinney's newest installment in the Wimpy Kid series has sold more than 535,000 print copies at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the Christmas rush got underway, the US book market surged again last week with print volumes increasing by 26% week on week. Overall, just over 20m book sales registered through Nielsen BookScan in the seven days ending 7th December. Jeff Kinney's The Long Haul (Amulet), enjoys another... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Print unit sales rose 5% in the week ended November 30, 2014 compared to Thanksgiving week in 2013 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book sales in the US jumped 23% week on week in the seven days ending 30th November as 15.8 million print books registered through Nielsen BookScan. It follows two consecutive weeks of volume growth above 5%. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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YouTube sensation Zoe Sugg has eclipsed superstars such J K Rowling, Dan Brown and E L James to record the biggest first week sale for a début since records began. Sugg, known as Zoella on her fashion and beauty vlog, which has over five million subscribers, shifted 78,109 copies of her Young... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With unit sales of print books up about 2% in the first 47 weeks of 2014, year over year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan, the industry is poised to post its first increase in print sales since 2008. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers are predicting that a Picador novel by a little-known Japanese writer will prove a left-field Christmas bestseller. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide, translated by Eric Selland, sold over 16,200 in paperback in its first six and a half weeks since publication at the end of September... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber Children’s is set to publish a cookbook and two children’s fiction titles from Sophie Thompson, actor and winner of this year’s Celebrity Masterchef. Commissioning editor Alice Swan said when she received a manuscript about a boy who could talk to animals, she didn’t realise who the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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