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 ]
The top three fiction titles in Germany were all debuts in October, led by In Times of Fading Light, which recently won the 2011 German Book Prize and is set for publication in the U.S. by Graywolf Press in fall 2013. Umberto Ecos newest book, The Prague Cemetery, which debuted at #3, is newly... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 31/10/2011 - 08:20 The first official sales charts including ebook sales data have been published in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, with Nielsen BookScan now supplying ebook sales reports to the US paper. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 11/08/2011 - 15:15 Fantasy author Trudi Canavan has become the latest writer to top the landmark figure of one million print book sales through UK Nielsen BookScan. Total sales through Nielsen BookScan to the week ending 6th August 2011 are... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen and Philip Stone Publication Date: Wed, 08/06/2011 - 19:15 Debut author Téa Obreht has won the Orange Prize for Fiction for The Tigers Wife (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), beating Man Booker-shortlisted bookies favourite Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador). Obreht, aged 25,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 10/05/2011 - 16:38 W H Smith has signed an exclusive deal to extend the Richard and Judy Book Club until 2015. The high street retailer has signed a contract with the celebrity couple to personally read and recommend eight fiction titles to WHS... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Thu, 21/04/2011 - 07:45 Egmont UK remains acquisitive but is predicting a "flat" year ahead. The specialist children's publisher reported sales down nearly 8% at £45.9m for the 12 months to 31st December 2010 (£49.7m in 2009) although pretax profits... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The two reports measure different aspects of the book market and one is far more comprehensive than the other, but figures released last week by Nielsen BookScan and the Association of American Publishers showed a trade market where ebooks are thriving and print books are struggling. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 15:24 Booksellers have suffered the worst March in six years, in one of the worst months across retail in almost 20 years. High street and indie retailers seem to be particularly feeling the Spring pinch, after March sales reached a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page and Philip Stone Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:40 Book sales have slumped on both sides of the Atlantic as the British and American markets experienced year-on-year declines in the first quarter of 2011. Book sales in the UK were down 3.1% to £324m, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 09:38 Profits surged to £7.5m at Quercus last year, as the independent announced HarperCollins publishing director Susan Watt is to set up a new imprint called Heron Books. In its financial results for the year to 31st December,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 18/03/2011 - 10:17 Independent children's publisher Inside Pocket has signed a five-figure four-book deal with Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winner Ursula Jones. Director of Inside Pocket, Sarah Harrop, acquired world rights, including audio and ebook, to the titles from Celia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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