Confessions of a Mask (1949) – MISHIMA Yukio
I’ve been scouring my uni’s library for hard-to-find books in the last few weeks, since tomorrow, I will no longer live in the same city. I’ve been particularly interested in […]
Tag Archives: Japan
Gold Rush (1998) – YŪ Miri
I’ve read some of Yū’s work before, though mostly in Japanese, and mostly skimming through it for thesis preparation. So it was nice to find a whole novel in the library […]
The Face of Another (1964) – ABE Kōbō
This is the third attempt I’ve made at reading The Face of Another (a clunky translation, but I can’t think of a better one, so I should probably shut up). […]
The Garden of Evening Mists (2012) – Tan Twan ENG
I read Tan’s first novel, The Gift of Rain, when it was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007, and loved it. The evocation of Malaysia after the Second World […]
Spring Snow (1968) – Yukio MISHIMA
Though I can name a whole pile of contemporary Japanese authors, my experience of the modern classics remains woefully underdone. I’m trying to work my way through a lot of […]
The Buddha in the Attic (2011) – Julie OTSUKA
The first chapter of The Buddha in the Attic was printed in Granta 114 (a seriously excellent collection, by the way), and the second in Granta 115. At the time, […]
Hotel Iris (1996) – Yoko OGAWA
I read Ogawa’s beautiful short novel, The Housekeeper and the Professor, last year, and have been passively searching for her other work since. Written almost ten years before that novel, […]
The Broken Commandment (1906) – Tōson SHIMAZAKI
Doing some research for my Honours project, I cam across this novel. To say it was hard to track down is an understatement – I’m pretty sure it’s out of […]
1Q84 (2009) – Haruki MURAKAMI
I need to start this review with something of a caveat – for the most part, I don’t like the work of Haruki Murakami. His works tend to leave me […]
The Lake (2005) – Banana YOSHIMOTO
This is my first proper dip into the longlist of this year’s Man Asian Literary Prize – that’s quite exciting, isn’t it? I read Yoshimoto’s Kitchen a long, long time […]
