Sayaka Murata

Ginny Tapley Takemori

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis—but will it be for the better?

Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie.

Convenience Store Woman

Mayumi Inaba

On a cool summer evening in 1977, Mayumi Inaba hears a forlorn cry carried by the breeze off Tokyo’s Tamagawa River. She follows the sound to the riverbank and finds a newborn kitten only the size of her palm dangling from a fence, abandoned. Overcome by tender affection, she takes the cat back to the small apartment she shares with her husband and christens her Mii: so begins an ineffable bond.

Over the next twenty years, we follow Inaba, a poet and novelist by moonlight, as she pursues quiet, solitude, and a room of her own. Through it all, her cat, a fiercely independent creature in her own right, is her confidante and muse.

From the late Mayumi Inaba, a winner of the Kawabata Prize and the Tanizaki Prize, Mornings Without Mii is not just a love letter to companionship: it’s a poignant, searching meditation on the forces that enable us to connect, to create, and to build a life.

Mornings Without Mii

Makoto Shinkai

Naruki Nagakawa

Stories

She and Her Cat

Ryū Murakami

Ralph F. McCarthy

Charles De Wolf

'From the Fatherland, with Love' is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of 'rebels' in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of 'Operation from the Fatherland, with Love'. But the terrorist Ishihara and his band of renegade youths - once dedicated to upseting the Japanese government - turn their deadly attention to the North Korean threat. They will not allow Fukuoka to fall without a fight.

From the Fatherland, with Love

Miyuki Miyabe

Volume 3 of Miyuki Miyabe’s best-selling murder mystery sees Hiromi and Peace respond to the criticism that they only go after defenseless women by targeting a man as their next victim, while plotting to frame Kaz as their fall guy. But even master manipulator Peace couldn’t predict how things would turn out . . . Available in e-book format in five separate volumes, to be released through spring 2016. Other e-books in English by Miyuki Miyabe: Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo The Book of Heroes ICO: Castle in the Mist Brave Story Praise for Miyabe: “A window into contemporary Japanese life.” ?San Francisco Chronicle “Enormously compelling… combining expert pacing and psychological nuance to ultimately haunting effect.” ?Publishers Weekly, starred review “Miyabe is a subtle observer of a country on the cusp. Her American readers can only hope for more chances to see through her eyes.” ?The Los Angeles Times “Absorbing… an artful blending of puzzle-solving and social commentary.” ?Washington Post

Puppet Master vol.3

In volume 4 of Miyuki Miyabe’s blockbuster mystery, the police investigation into the serial killings focuses on identifying the women depicted in a stash of horrific photos and videos found in Hiromi Kurihashi’s Tokyo apartment, and locating the killers’ hideout. Meanwhile, Shigeko Maehata’s journalistic career takes off with her in-depth reports on the serial killings. A stroke of good fortune brings her into contact with Yumiko Takai as well as Koichi Amikawa, also known as Peace, who has taken Yumiko under his wing and is supporting her claims that her brother was innocent. Available in e-book format in five separate volumes, to be released through summer 2016. Other e-books in English by Miyuki Miyabe: Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo The Book of Heroes ICO: Castle in the Mist Brave Story Praise for Miyabe: “A window into contemporary Japanese life.” ?San Francisco Chronicle “Enormously compelling… combining expert pacing and psychological nuance to ultimately haunting effect.” ?Publishers Weekly, starred review “Miyabe is a subtle observer of a country on the cusp. Her American readers can only hope for more chances to see through her eyes.” ?The Los Angeles Times “Absorbing… an artful blending of puzzle-solving and social commentary.” ?Washington Post

Ginny Tapley Takemori

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