Door een Japanse leerling-priester wordt de onmacht om in ware gemeenschap met anderen te leven ervaren als de macht die het heiligdom, waarin hij dienst doet, over hem uitoefent, een macht die hij tenslotte tracht te breken door de tempel in brand te steken.
Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present. 'A story of love in a cool climate, intensely romantic and weepily beautiful...it is startlingly different: a true original' Guardian 'Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem' The Times 'This wise and beautiful book is full of hidden truths' New York Times 'This book aches...an eloquent treatise on the vertiginous, irrational powers of love and desire' Independent on Sunday 'A beautiful, atmospheric novel sustained by Murakami's flair for philosophical mediation at its most human' Irish Times
This autobiographical novel, is the haunting story of a Japanese boy's development towards a homosexual identity during and after the Second World War. Charting his progress from an isolated childhood through adolescence to manhood, it details his inner life and preoccupation with death
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022 From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a fourteen-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying. In Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror? Unflinching yet tender, sharply observed, intimate and multi-layered, this simple yet profound novel stands as yet another dazzling testament to Mieko Kawakami's uncontainable talent. TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of the Year 'Mieko Kawakami is a genius' - Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times 'An expertly told, deeply unsettling tale of adolescent violence' - Vogue Translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
'Even bigger than Japan is the inside of your head. Don't ever surrender yourself - not to Japan, not to anything' A shy, unworldly young student has his eyes opened to Tokyo's bustling metropolis, in this delicate, bitter-sweet work of innocence and experience from Japan's foremost modern novelist. Ten new titles in the colourful, small-format, portable new Pocket Penguins series
A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, set in a future where the old live almost-forever and children's lives are all too brief.