Portrait of a Woman: Japanese Fiction Week

Hi all,

After the success of my Japanese YA Novel Week last year, I decided to organise another one and invite some other Japanese lit fans to participate!

Last time, Nina from Death, Books and Tea and I concentrated more on the Young Adult market and the Japanese Light Novels (short and sometimes in manga form). This week, we will be broadening the scope of our reads and review a variety of authors and genres.

Contemporary Japanese literature is getting more and more popular abroad. Literary writers like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto sell millions of copies worldwide, and their books are must-reads for book fans. Manga and anime are becoming more and more mainstream with Hollywood films of popular Japanese stories bringing new audiences to the books. The success of The Hunger Games has reignited interest in the epic Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Japan also brought us a wave of critically-acclaimed female crime fiction writers like Natsuo Kirino whose raw and violent stories are translated in many countries.

Japanese literature is booming and for this week, we will be presenting you with some of the best Japanese books (we think) available in English!

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Here's what you will be reading this week:

Mon: Introduction post (you're reading it now :))

Tues: Review of Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi, by Andrew from The Pewter Wolf

Wed: Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, by Laura from SisterSpooky

Thur: Review of Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Fri: Review of Out by Natsuo Kirino, by Nina from Death, Books and Tea

Sat: Review of Moribito, Guardian of the Spirit by Naoko Uehashi

Sun: Guest post from Zoe Marriott

We all hope you will find some new interesting books or genres you want to dip into.

Have a lovely week!