David’s Reviews > Breasts and Eggs > Status Update

448 pages!? Mine is like 150! Is this the version she re-wrote with additional stories?

Yours is 150? Did the seller rip out the last 2/3 of your book? Mine is definitely 400+ pages! :)

I checked! The story wad originally less than 100 pages. Mine includes a short story as well. Then she was picked up for translation into English and rewrote and expanded the text, which is why yours is so long! I simply have an earlier version of the text, it seems.

Wow, interesting! I knew that she’d expanded the text for a non-Japanese version, but I didn’t realize it was only for English-language readers. Yours may already be a collector’s edition! It would be fascinating to compare the original with the later version.

Maybe so! It's got to do with the way fiction is published in Japan, if I have it right. When the work is bought and paid for, it's more changeable. The Norwegian version of some Murakami book is like 200 pages shorter because the editor just cut it out! Japanese editors are more hands-off with length.

Interesting! I guess that when an overseas publisher buys the rights to it they have a certain amount of freedom to work with the author to change it. It means you may need to read all your Japanese novels twice. Lucky you!