Japanese Literature discussion

We've received our first heads-up about a 2023 release, so this thread is where we'll continue to share and aggregate our 2023 publication news.

[2023] Marshland by Otohiko Kaga. Translated by Albert Novick. (Dalkey Archive Press) https://dalkeyarchive.store/products/...

Feb 23 The Water Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji. Translated by Ho-Ling Wong. (Pushkin Vertigo) https://pushkinpress.com/books/the-mi...

March 7 (US) Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai. Translated by Sam Bett. (New Directions)

March 7 Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada. tr by Haydn Trowell. (Europa Editions)

March 7 The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales by Vasily Eroshenko. Translated by Adam Kuplowsky. (Columbia Univ Press)

April 4 (US &UK audiobook, kindle and hardcover in the US) Fractured Soul by Akira Mizubayashi (HarperVia)

April 7 (UK) Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai (New Directions)

April 11 Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki(Verso Fiction)

April 11 This Scheming World by Saikaku Ihara (Tuttle) (re-release - English language version first published in 1965)

April 30 (UK - hardcover) Fractured Soul by Akira Mizubayashi. tr from the French by Alison Anderson(HarperCollins)

May 2 The Rope Artist by Fuminori Nakamura. Translated by Sam Bett (on Amazon; not on GR yet) (Soho Crime)

May 4 Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda (Doubleday)

May 9 or June 30 The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba. Translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa. (middle grade) (Yonder)



June 6 People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice: Stories by Ao Omae. Translated by Emily Balistrieri. (Harper Collins).

June 21 Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Translated by Polly Barton (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

June 29 (UK) (July 4 US) The Devil's Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo. Translated by Jim Rion. ISBN 9781782278849. Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo imprint of Pushkin Press; with US distribution by Penguin Random House.

June 29 (US) The Devil's Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo. Translated by Jim Rion. Pushkin Vertigo

July 4 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. Translated by Eric Ozawa. (Harper Collins)

July 11 Sunrise: Radiant Stories by Erika Kobayashi. Translated by Brian Bergstrom. (Astra House)

July 11 (Manga) Okinawa by Susumu Higa. Translated by Jocelyne Allen. (nonfiction - 2 collections of intertwined stories)

July 25 The Forest Brims Over by Maru Ayase. tr by Haydn Trowell (Catapult/Counterpoint/Soft Skull)

Aug 1 The End of August by Yu Miri. Translated by Morgan Giles. Tilted Axis Press.

Aug 10(UK) what you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama. It's the same as お探し物は図書室まで . Penguin (Hanover Square Press)

October 12 The North Light by Hideo Yokoyama. Translated by Louise Heal Kawai. (Quercus - riverrun imprint)

November 7 (US)/ Nov 9 (UK) The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Haydn Trowell. (Vintage Int'l).

December 7 The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Fūtarō Yamada. (Pushkin Vertigo)

December 12 The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino (Det. Kaga #10). (Minotaur Books)

New Izumi Suzuki (author of Terminal Boredom: Stories) is coming out April 11th, 2023 from Verso Fiction. It's called Hit Parade of Tears, which also seems to be a collection of short stories.

https://www.amazon.com/Hit-Parade-Tea...
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hit-...

also, quick question: I've noticed a few more books displayed on Amazon, but don't have official announcement from the publishing houses websites yet, is it ok to keep sharing?

Vicky wrote: "New Izumi Suzuki (author of Terminal Boredom: Stories) is coming out April 11th, 2023 from Verso Fiction. It's called Hit Parade of Tears, which also seems to be a ..."

Of course! Thanks for helping us all stay current. I’ll update the 2023 list tomorrow to include Hit Parade.

Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai (prequel to No Longer Human) out March 7th in US and April 7th in UK, published by New Directions.
https://www.amazon.com/Flowers-Buffoo...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flowers-Buff...

Fractured Soul: A Novel by Akira Mizubayashi out April 4th in US and UK, except that the hardcover in UK is out April 27th, the rest (audiobook in US and UK, kindle in US and UK, hardcover in US) out April 4th, published by HarperVia. Kinda weird, but oh well...
https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Fractu...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-Soul-...

This Scheming World: Classic Stories of Deception, Greed and Desire in Old Japan by Ihara Saikaku out April 11th (both US and UK), published by Tuttle Publishing.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Schemin...

Kindle versions will be available for the following books:
Pro Bono by Seichō Matsumoto, kindle version out March 21st
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-Bono-Sei...
The Blade of the Courtesans by Keiichirô Ryû, kindle version out March 7th
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blade-Courte...
Winter Sleep by Kenzo Kitakata, kindle version out February 28th
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Sleep...

The Ink Dark Moon, re-issue (original translation published in 1990), out January 19th by Vintage Classics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Moon-Vi...

I'm still waiting to see whether North Light by Hideo Yokoyama will be released on Feb. 16th or Nov. 23rd...

Carol wrote: "updated July 3, 2022

March 2 The Water Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Press). Translated by Ho-Ling Wong.

Pushkin Press doesn't d..."

May I ask where did you find the info for the new Fuminori Nakamura? Searched it EVERYWHERE, including Amazon, and found no info about any Nakamura release next year ☹️

@vicky, Soho Crime made it available on Edelweiss +, in the last ten days or so.

Carol wrote: "@vicky, Soho Crime made it available on Edelweiss +, in the last ten days or so."

Ah thank you 💖

To the extent a new form of consumption is made available, e.g., a kindle version of a translation that's been released previously in hardcover or paper, I'm not including it in our new releases list, but this is a great thread to share that information.

New Maki Kashimada translation (author of Touring the Land of the Dead), Love at Six Thousand Degrees out March 7th, 2023 (received Mishima Yukio Prize in 2005).

https://www.amazon.com/Love-at-Six-Th...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-at-Six-...

Pushkin Press has added this book on their website now, with the name changed to The Mill House Murders and release date to 23/02/2023.

https://pushkinpress.com/books/the-mi...

Polly Barton's translation of Mieko Kanai's Mild Vertigo is coming out next year, published by Fitzcarraldo.

Not literature but potentially interesting in terms of contemporary Japan:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

great post, thanks

There is a new Kawabata's book coming out on April 4th titled Beyond the Rainbow .

On May 4, Doubleday will release Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda

Thanks, Manon! I’ll update the list to reflect both releases when I’m next at my laptop.

I’ve got a date off Twitter, if that’s allowed. Morgan Giles (the translator) says Yu Miri’s The End of August FINALLY has a release date in August 2023.

Emily Balistrieri is also translating Ao Omae’s The People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice for 2023 release. Harper Collins’s website says June 6.

Hi Carol, all. Am I OK to share these new releases on Instagram please? Happy to tag and add you all for credit. Just keen to share.

transfict.honnomushi wrote: "Hi Carol, all. Am I OK to share these new releases on Instagram please? Happy to tag and add you all for credit. Just keen to share."

Since no one has answered, I'll offer my thoughts:

I'm not aware of an official group policy. All this information is publicly available; we're acting as a clearing house. I contribute as much info as I learn myself as soon as I learn it.

So I've got a list going on my blog, but I have an attribution in the header: "Thank you to the Goodreads Japanese Literature Group for pooling information." I include a link to the group's main page.

Y'all, I just learned about the most exciting, slightly tangential book in translation for March 7, 2023 release:

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales
Vasily Eroshenko. Translated by Adam Kuplowsky. Foreword by Jack Zipes

"...The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales presents a selection of Eroshenko’s stories, translated from Japanese and Esperanto, to English readers for the first time..."

Check out the press release. It sounds amazing. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-narr...

May 9: The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba

Avery Fischer Udagawa (Translator)

This one is middle-grade fiction.

https://www.amazon.com/House-Lost-Cap...

transfict.honnomushi wrote: "Hi Carol, all. Am I OK to share these new releases on Instagram please? Happy to tag and add you all for credit. Just keen to share."

I agree with Alison's comment. It's nice if you credit the group, since it allows lovers of japanese fiction to find one another online, but we don't "own" any of this information. Thanks for asking - really appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Thanks both, this group is so lovely. Amazing community.

Finally we now know there's a new Seishi Yokomizo coming out next year 😍

The Devil's Flute Murders

UK: June 29th
US: July 4th
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo imprint of Pushkin Press

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Flute...
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Murders...

Vicky wrote: "Finally we now know there's a new Seishi Yokomizo coming out next year 😍

The Devil's Flute Murders

UK: June 29th
US: July 4th
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo imprint of Pushkin Press

..."

This is great news, indeed! Thanks, Vicky.

I'm seeing What You Are Looking for is in the Library on 10 August 2023. It's the same as お探し物は図書室まで .

A collection of five linked stories set in a library involving the same librarian.

I was trying to do a last check before uploading a list of 2023 translations this week and stumbled on

Sunrise : Radiant Stories
Erika Kobayashi, Brian Bergstrom (Translated by)
Astra House (July 11, 2023)
*Already DRC on Edelweiss*

4th July: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Novel


Satoshi Yagisawa tr: Eric Ozawa

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/days...

I see it here with the Harper Collins ISBN: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop , but no description in English.

The description in Japanese is long and rambling and doesn't give me a good sense of what the book is about.

Bill wrote: "I see it here with the Harper Collins ISBN: [book : Days at the Morisaki Bookshop | 62047992], but no description in English.

The description in Japanese is long and rambling and doesn't give me a..."

Ditto. I'd try to track that one down, too.

We don't typically include manga series in our publication listings, but I expect many of us are interested in Okinawa by Susumu Higa, translated by Jocelyne Allen, to be published in print by Fantagraphics and released July 11. Here's a description:

Susumu Higa’s Okinawa, was originally published as two thematically linked manga: Sword of Sand and Mabui. Okinawa begins as a chronicle of the particular impacts of the war on the Okinawan people, caught between the invading American forces and the Japan that annexed their once-independent nation only a few decades earlier. Rooted in that difficult history, the second half of Okinawa explores the present-day echoes of that war, which continue to affect the lives of the archipelago’s residents. It’s a gripping, powerful work, told in stand-alone chapters....

Message 2 is updated to here.

Thanks, Carol!

Also, if we’re name dropping more “literary” manga, I’m add this one Ian Suttle just clues me in about:

The River Imp and the Stinky Jewel and Other Tales collects five kibyōshi published between 1778 and 1807, chosen for both entertainment value and stylistic variety. Their authors reinvent traditional Japanese monsters as contemporary characters who mirror the foibles of the human world. They tell stories such as: The lover of the long-necked rokuro-kubi makes a ridiculous attempt to rescue her from her human captor. A mischievous river creature steals a jewel lodged deep inside a boy’s buttocks, setting off a curious chain of events involving a historical samurai and a real-life “fart man.” A demon girl from hell is sent to the world of the living in order to destroy a sacred Buddhist statue—but things don’t go quite as she plans.

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-riv...

Hi! First time I'm participating so this is a bit scary.

However! According to Waterstones This is Amiko by Natsuko Imamura coming out 10/2023

https://www.waterstones.com/book/this...

Again according to Waterstones: A death in tokyo by Keigo Higashino. 9/2023

https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-de...

Nalice wrote: "Hi! First time I'm participating so this is a bit scary.

However! According to Waterstones This is Amiko by Natsuko Imamura coming out 10/2023

https://www.waterstones.com/book/this......"

A Death in Tokyo is coming out this month, that's the paperback version which is going to be released in September next year. Usually the release order is hardcover + kindle or audiobook version first, and then the paperback after some time.

Alright, apologies. Totally missed it coming out earlier. I am aware of the release order, thanks.

The other book however does not seem to be published this year.

Nalice wrote: "Alright, apologies. Totally missed it coming out earlier. I am aware of the release order, thanks.

The other book however does not seem to be published this year."

That's correct, and because of your message, I also found another mystery coming out next year (and I think it's an error there by Waterstones, the book cannot be in stock since it's coming out next year in December):

The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Futaro Yamada (Pushkin Press) - out Dec. 7th, 2023

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-...

Welcome, Nalice! I hope you don’t feel intimidated. We really appreciate your participation!

Carol wrote: "Aug 10(UK) what you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama. It's the same as お探し物は図書室まで . Penguin (Hanover Square Press)"

I have it straight from the translator that this one is translated by Alison Watts.

How seriously do we take staying up-to-date on dates? Penguin now has the release on 10/8.

I've got more recent updates on several titles here, but at some point keeping current with publishers just becomes an exercise in futility.

These would be the bigger/more significant additions or changes:

Marshland
US: 05/16/2023
UK: 06/29/2023

The Water Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
*It's actually just *Mill* House, not "Water Mill"

Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda
Translator is Philip Gabriel

The Rainbow or Beyond the Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata
Translator is Haydn Trowell (confirmed with translator)

Pushkin also tweeted these titles for 2023, but I can't find any info about them yet:
-Nails and Eyes
-Nipponia Nippon

Oh. I guess one more question while I'm at it.

The Thorn Puller comes out tomorrow (12/13/2022) in the US.
It doesn't come out until 1/26/2023 in the UK.

Does it go just on the 2022 list? Or does it belong on the 2023 list, too?

(I'm asking about the general principle. This isn't the only relevant book.)

Vicky wrote: "...and because of your message, I also found..."

Ditto, thanks to Nalice:

The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories - Pushkin Collection (Paperback)
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki (author)

The sage Confucius travels to a kingdom ruled by a struggling duke, whose pursuit of virtue is threatened by his consort's obsession desire for pleasure. A naive servant elopes with his master's daughter, only to be plunged headlong into a world of murder and corruption. Exhausted by a lifestyle of never-ending debauchery, a young prince finds himself in possession of a dazzling, beguiling mermaid. These three short stories, in a gorgeous new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, distill the essence of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter fiction: the co-mingling of Japanese and Chinese mythologies, the chillingly dark side of desire and the paper-thin line between the sublime and the depraved.
Publisher: Pushkin Press

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-...

I wonder how Waterstones is getting this up-to-date info.

Alison wrote: "These would be the bigger/more significant additions or changes:

Marshland
US: 05/16/2023
UK: 06/29/2023

The Water Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
*It's actually just *Mill* House, not "Wa..."

Both "Nails and Eyes" by Kaori Fujino and "Nipponia Nippon" by Kazushige Abe (Mieko Kawakami's husband) have the following Amazon date: September 5th

https://www.amazon.com/Nails-Japanese...
https://www.amazon.com/Nipponia-Nippo...

Alison wrote: "Welcome, Nalice! I hope you don’t feel intimidated. We really appreciate your participation!"

Thank you (:

Lisa Hoffman-Kuroda just announced her new upcoming co-translation of Akutagawa’s Kappa:

Kappa
Fiction by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda Allison Markin Powell

Cover design by Jamie Keenan

The Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore known for dragging unwary toddlers to their deaths in rivers: a scaly, child-sized creature, looking something like a frog, but with a sharp, pointed beak and an oval-shaped saucer on top of its head, which hardens with age.

Akutagawa’s Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a madman in a lunatic asylum: he recounts how, while out hiking in Kamikochi, he spots a Kappa. He decides to chase it and, like Alice pursuing the White Rabbit, he tumbles down a hole, out of the human world and into the realm of the Kappas. There he is well looked after, in fact almost made a pet of: as a human, he is a novelty. He makes friends and spends his time learning about their world, exploring the seemingly ridiculous ways of the Kappa, but noting many—not always flattering—parallels to Japanese mores regarding morality, legal justice, economics, and sex. Alas, when the patient eventually returns to the human world, he becomes disgusted by humanity and, like Gulliver missing the Houyhnhnms, he begins to pine for his old friends the Kappas, rather as if he has been forced to take leave of Toad of Toad Hall…

Buy from:
Your Independent Bookstore Barnes & Noble Amazon
Edition Data
Paperback (published June 6, 2023)
ISBN
9780811232166
Price US
13.95
Trim Size
5x8
Page Count
96
Ebook
ISBN
9780811232173

https://www.ndbooks.com/book/kappa/

If someone would like to keep up with a list in the comments like Carol, they are very welcome.

I'll update the booklist, but you can find the rest of the info on the following spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I'll keep it updated. Please LMK if you have trouble with access.

--
[as of 01/13/2023]

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
Devil's Flute Murders, The
End of August, The
Final Curtain, The (Detective Kaga)
Flowers of Buffoonery
Forest Brims Over, The
Fractured Soul (FRENCH)
Hit Parade of Tears
Honeybees and Distant Thunder
House of the Lost on the Cape, The (MG)
I Guess All We Have Is Freedom: Selected Short Stories
Kappa
Last Chance to Say Goodbye
Love at Six Thousand Degrees
Marshland
Meiji Guillotine Murders, The
Mild Vertigo
Mill House Murders, The
Nails and Eyes
Narrow Cage & Other Modern Fairy Tales, The
Nipponia Nippon
North Light, The
People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice
Rainbow, The
Rope Artist, The
Siren's Lament, The
Sunrise: Radiant Stories
Tatami Time Machine Blues
This is Akiko
This Scheming World (re-release)
Thorn Puller, The
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

Someone reached out to me about access issues with the spreadsheet. Sincere apologies—it was unintentional.

I think I’ve fixed it now. Lmk if you run into problems. Happy to update info whenever necessary. :-)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I just got an email from Honford Star about an upcoming Japanese release in June...

https://www.honfordstar.com/finger-bone