Jay Rubin Boeken

Vol. 2: book three translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel

A major new anthology of great Japanese short stories introduced by Haruki Murakami.This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story collection, from its origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable practitioners writing today. Curated by Jay Rubin (who has himself freshly translated several of the stories) and introduced by Haruki Murakami this is a book which will be a revelation to many of its readers. Short story writers already well-known to English-language readers are all included - Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata, Yoshimoto - but also many surprising new finds. From Tsushima Yuko's 'Flames' to Sawanishi Yuten's 'Filling Up with Sugar', from Hoshi Shin'ichi's 'Shoulder-Top Secretary' to Yoshimoto Banana's 'Bee Honey', The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, charm, beauty and comedy.

Okada is apparently a happy man - his domestic life seems familiar and comfortable, but admittedly he has just quit his job, the cat has disappeared and a strange woman is bothering him with explicit phone calls

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. 'Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around' Time Out 'Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami's writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility' Guardian 'This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows' Independent on Sunday 'Catches the absorption and giddy rush of adolescent love... It is also, for all the tragic momentum and the apparently kamikaze consciousness of many of its characters, often funny and quirkily observed' Times Literary Supplement 'A heart-stoppingly moving story... Murakami is, without a doubt, one of the world's finest novelists' Glasgow Herald

She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. As they begin to decipher more about the strange world into which they have slipped, so they sense their destinies converging.

REVISED AND UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL ON 1Q84As a young man, Haruki Murakami played records and mixed drinks at his Tokyo Jazz club, Peter Cat, then wrote at the kitchen table until the sun came up. He loves music of all kinds - jazz, classical, folk, rock - and has more than six thousand records at home. And when he writes, his words have a music all their own, much of it learned from jazz. Jay Rubin, a self-confessed fan, has written a book for other fans who want to know more about this reclusive writer. He reveals the autobiographical elements in Murakami's fiction, and explains how he developed a distinctive new style in Japanese writing. In tracing Murakami's career, he uses interviews he conducted with the author between 1993 and 2001, and draws on insights and observations gathered from over ten years of collaborating with Murakami on translations of his works.

Haruki Murakami bewijst met deze fantastische verhalenbundel opnieuw dat hij elke literaire vorm beheerst. Blinde wilg, slapende vrouw bestrijkt het hele spectrum van de menselijke ervaring. De mysterieuze verhalen variëren in sfeer van surrealistisch tot alledaags. De lezer vindt krassende kraaien, een misdadige aap en een ijscoman op zijn pad, en wordt geconfronteerd met de dromen die ons leven bepalen en de wensen die we koesteren. Bij een onverwachte ontmoeting in Italië, een romantische ballingschap in Griekenland, een vakantie op Hawaii of in de greep van het dagelijks leven worden de personages geraakt – door het opgloeien van een vuurvliegje, een pijnlijk verlies, opvlammende erotiek en de schrijnende afstand tussen mensen die eigenlijk snakken naar elkaars nabijheid.

Als een meisje in een grote Japanse stad de nacht lezend doorbrengt in een kroeg, ontmoet ze een student die haar zus kent.

'What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad.' Autobiographical stories from one of Japan's masters of modernist story-telling. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927). Akutagawa's Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is also available in Penguin Classics.