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 ]
When publishers Rare Bird and Unnamed Press moved into Highland Park, North Figueroa Bookshop soon followed, putting down roots in a bookstore-starved neighbohood. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-02-14 14:00:08 UTC ]
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I assume that at some point I must’ve told Dan Kois what to do. During the years he worked for me at the grand old Bull’s Head Bookshop on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus somewhere in the late ‘90s. I must’ve said, at least once, “Shelve. Show that customer to the cookbooks. Shut up.” If so, […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-17 09:54:33 UTC ]
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The year’s autobiography big-hitters haven’t sold as well as expected, with buyers disenchanted by pricing and lack of feelgood topicsFrom actors and musicians to athletes and presenters, there are no shortage of celebrity memoirs on bookshop shelves. This year has seen new books published by a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-09 10:52:17 UTC ]
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“Booksellers are constantly giving their patrons extraordinary bargains. In London recently a copy of an early edition of Keats’ Poems, originally bought from a dealer for 2s was sold for £140, and a first edition of Burns’ Poems bought in Edinburgh for 1s 6d brought £350.” –R.M. Williamson,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-07 09:53:48 UTC ]
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The two Los Angeles–based independent publishers opened North Figueroa Bookshop earlier this month. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Duff, who dated Aaron Carter in the early 2000s, accused his memoir publisher of 'recklessly pushing a book out to capitalize on this tragedy.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-11-14 00:40:03 UTC ]
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Is there anything scarier than not knowing what great book you’re going to read next? Big love to the booksellers at Exile in Bookville (Chicago, IL), Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS), Copper Dog Books (Beverly, MA), and The Haunted Bookshop (Iowa City, IA) for their generous recommendations.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-31 08:59:42 UTC ]
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The proprietor’s name is Amy (except that, of course, it isn’t). She’s a kind, petite woman in her forties, the owner of a ghost-themed bookstore in a small southern city. I won’t tell you which city. It’s for your own safety. This is, after all, a ghost story. And most importantly: it’s true.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-31 08:57:03 UTC ]
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Sotheby’s describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for collectorsOne day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-06 13:44:15 UTC ]
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Author Alex George, the owner of Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo., was named Midwest Bookseller of the Year by the Midwest Indie Booksellers Association. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As an aspiring writer I loved many exiled authors, from Márquez to Kundera, but with Rushdie the stakes were raisedIt was more than a decade ago when I was introduced to the work of Salman Rushdie, thanks to the recommendation of a writer in my homeland of Pakistan. As an aspiring writer myself,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-14 14:47:31 UTC ]
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Kant’s Thief I entered the bookshop already terrified and sweaty-palmed, determined to steal Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. I would have liked for the whole thing to be over in the blink of an eye. To be able to run as fast as I could to the section where I’d seen the book before, snatch […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-08 08:50:35 UTC ]
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For founder and owner Jazzi McGilbert, the concept bookshop and creative space is a physical offering for Black people in L.A. to be themselves. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-06-17 19:58:19 UTC ]
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Today's edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery.`The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-06-02 15:17:24 UTC ]
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Some days after Barry’s death on December 25, 2020, I pulled every book of his I owned from the shelves around my apartment and stacked them on a corner of my desk. Then I walked down the hill to the used bookshop in the small Oregon town where I live and found several books of […] Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2022-05-31 16:36:03 UTC ]
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May is Mental Health Awareness Day. Recognize it by picking up some of these nonfiction and fiction titles about living with mental illness, including Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-05-03 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Book Reviews Photo by Daniel on Unsplash Readers will naturally and, perhaps, unfortunately, wish to make connections between Sayaka Murata’s (b. 1979) newest novel, Earthlings, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove Press, 2021), and her... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-19 20:44:40 UTC ]
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L.A. transplant Stanley Rose's short-lived 1930s bookstore and boozy backroom became a literary haven for Chandler, Fante, Faulkner, West and many more. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-14 13:00:44 UTC ]
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Shelf Talkers is a new series at Lit Hub where booksellers from independent bookstores around the country share their favorite reads of the moment. Here are recommendations from the staff at The Bookshop, a store in East Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 2016. * Kyle Lucia Wu, Win Me Something... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-11 08:51:17 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble finally has a direct answer to Amazon's purchase of Audible. The bookseller has launched a B&N Audiobooks service in the US that lets you either buy recordings or pay $15 per month for a subscription that offers one recurring monthly credit. You'll have access to more than... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-04-07 16:21:47 UTC ]
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