“The forger’s life is a shadow cast by the original—always present, yet never truly seen.” Chapter 1: The Discovery The story begins with the narrator, a writer, stumbling […]
Japanese literature
The Hunting Gun
“The hunting gun is a lonely thing. It is not like a sword, which can be drawn in a moment of passion. A gun must be loaded, aimed, […]
Japanese literature
Bullfight
“The bullfight was over, but the memory of it lingered like a stain.” Chapter 1: The Invitation The novel opens with Tsugami, a newspaper editor in post-war Osaka, […]
Japanese literature
Woman Running in the Mountains
“She felt as if she were running through the mountains, alone, with no one to rely on.” Part 1: Takiko’s Pregnancy Takiko Odaka, a young woman in Tokyo, […]
Japanese literature
Child of Fortune
“She had always been alone, and she would always be alone.” Chapter 1: Kōko’s Solitude Kōko, a divorced single mother in her thirties, lives in Tokyo with her […]
Japanese literature
Territory of Light
“Light, even artificial light, has a way of exposing things.” Chapter 1: April – The Apartment The unnamed protagonist, a recently separated woman, moves into a sunlit fourth-floor […]
Japanese literature
Hotel Iris
“The sea was calm that night, as if it had swallowed all the noise in the world.” Chapter 1 The novel opens in a small seaside town where […]
Japanese literature
The Housekeeper and the Professor
“He called the square root sign the ‘temple of numbers.’ Inside the temple, numbers were protected, absolute, eternal.” Chapter 1: The Professor The story begins with the Housekeeper, […]
Japanese literature
Revenge
“I could hear the faint sound of the knife against the cutting board. It was a comforting sound, like a lullaby.” Chapter 1: Afternoon at the Bakery A […]
Japanese literature
The Memory Police
“The island was shrouded in mist that morning, and the air was thick with the scent of the sea.” The novel follows an unnamed novelist living on an […]