Japanese Contemporary Fiction

With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.

In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels.

Le retour de l'auteur japonais le plus lu en France. Parution le 2 janvier 2025 Evènement!!! Le grand retour du maître Murakami pour un roman éblouissant, dans la lignée de ses grandes œuvres – Kafka sur le rivage ou 1Q84 – et sept ans après son dernier roman – Le Meurtre du commandeur. Tu dis: La Cité est entourée de hauts murs et il est très difficile d'y pénétrer. Mais encore plus difficile d'en sortir. Comment pourrais-je y entrer, alors? Il suffit que tu le désires.

After a successful rescue mission in the empire, Eizo welcomes Helen to the family. Life at the forge is peaceful once more, though living in the Black Forest comes with its own set of dangers. The family encounters another aggressive bear, and once they dispatch it, they find and adopt an orphaned wolf pup. With yet another mouth to feed, Eizo knows he must continue to test the limits of his cheats. His next challenge? Working with a rare, stubborn metal called appoitakara. Using this metal, Eizo forges Helen a new pair of swords and then decides to design a katana for himself!

When a mysterious woman requests a custom katana, Eizo's passion is ignited. There's just one problem—the client is a demon, and her people have had a complicated and historically violent relationship with humans. Since Eizo desires a peaceful life, can his conscience withstand forging a god-tier weapon for humanity's former enemy? Along with a new commission, Forge Eizo also receives a new family member: an adorable drake called Krul! Unfortunately, navigating wingless dragon ownership isn't the only trial ahead.

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives. It's also run by talking cats.

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in - it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly White, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi - or Izzy, because “it’s easier this way” - and her mom against the world. But then Izumi discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity...and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.

In the early 1920s, Japanese college professor Masao Takashimaya of Kyoto had a passion for modern ideas that was as strong as his wife's belief in ancient tradition. Twenty years later, his 18-year-old daughter Hiroko, torn between her mother's traditions and her father's wishes, boarded SS Nagoya Maru to come to California for an education, and to make her father proud. It was August 1941.

Putting the fey tragedy behind him, Erich arrives at the Rhinian capital and begins his term of service under Lady Agrippina at the Imperial College of Magic. There, he draws the attention of a troubling wardrobe connoisseur but has no choice but to press on and earn his sister's tuition. After befriending a student at the College, the two set off on one of Agrippina's simple errands—until the Goddess of Dice turns their quick chore into a full-blown dungeon crawl!

The magus Agrippina saves the munchkin hero Erich by the skin of his teeth. This favor does not come without a cost—she brings news that little Elisa is actually a changeling! To protect his sister's future, Erich's only choice is to accompany the magus to the imperial capital as a servant, leaving his hometown behind... but not before making an oath to his childhood friend. When fairies suddenly appear on his path to the capital, will he be able to avoid a critical failure?!

With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father’s first child—haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together—seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances.

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother’s garden—convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle—and the dormant cherry tree within it. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother’s garden, and together they embark on reviving it.

After a draining December, Sakuta is quickly nearing the end of his second year of high school. Since Mai is a third-year student, they don’t have much time left together before graduation rolls around. Meanwhile, his sister, Kaede, is slowly but steadily venturing outdoors again. Just as she begins to find her footing, she announces her most ambitious goal yet—attending her brother’s high school! Sakuta knows better than anyone how difficult this will be for Kaede, and he’s ready to support her however he can.

性加害の告発が開けたパンドラの箱――MeToo運動、マッチングアプリ、SNS……世界の急激な変化の中で溺れもがく人間たち。対立の果てに救いは訪れるのか?「わかりあえないこと」のその先を描く、日本文学の最高到達点。

「人が死ぬのって、素敵よね」彼女は僕のすぐ耳もとでしゃべっていたので、その言葉はあたたかい湿った息と一緒に僕の体内にそっともぐりこんできた。

世界35ヶ国で翻訳決定！柚木麻子の新境地にして集大成。男たちの財産を奪い、殺害した容疑で逮捕された梶井真奈子(カジマナ)。若くも美しくもない彼女がなぜ──。週刊誌記者の町田里佳は親友の伶子の助言をもとに梶井の面会を取り付ける。

昭和40年代の初め。わたし一ノ瀬真理子は17歳、千葉の海近くの女子高二年。それは九月、大雨で運動会の後半が中止になった夕方、わたしは家の八畳間で一人、レコードをかけ目を閉じた……目覚めたのは桜木真理子42歳。

婚約者・坂庭真実が姿を消した。その居場所を探すため、西澤架は、彼女の「過去」と向き合うことになる。

EL FENÓMENO COREANO QUE HA DADO LA VUELTA AL MUNDO. Una historia conmovedora sobre los momentos decisivos de la vida y de cómo los libros pueden sanar heridas y cambiar a las personas. En un pequeño callejón de un barrio tranquilo de Seúl se encuentra la librería Hyunam-dong. La dueña, Yeongju, ha pasado su vida haciendo lo que se esperaba de ella (estudiar, casarse y tener una carrera exitosa) hasta que, tras su divorcio y cansada de cumplir con las expectativas de otros, decide dejarlo todo atrás para perseguir su sueño de tener una librería.

真希は29歳の版画家。夏の午後、ダンプと衝突する。気がつくと、自宅の座椅子でまどろみから目覚める自分がいた。３時15分。いつも通りの家、いつも通りの外。が、この世界には真希一人のほか誰もいなかった。