“Luck is like a train schedule. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t.” Prologue The story begins aboard a speeding bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka, where multiple […]
Japanese literature
Moshi Moshi
“The dead don’t go anywhere. They’re all here. Each moment is always overlapping with another.” Chapter 1: The Beginning of Grief Yoshie, a young woman in Tokyo, struggles […]
Japanese literature
The Little House
“A house is more than just walls and a roof—it holds the echoes of lives lived within.” Chapter 1: The House on the Hill The story opens with […]
Japanese literature
The Changeling
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — Kenzaburō Ōe, The Changeling Part 1: The Mysterious Tape The novel opens with Kogito Choko, a renowned writer […]
German literature
Guilt
“Every crime has two stories—the one the law sees and the one the criminal tells himself.” Chapter 1: The Crime The book opens with a seemingly straightforward crime: […]
Russian literature
The Big Green Tent
“Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled.” Part One: Childhood and Early Bonds The novel opens in post-Stalinist Moscow, introducing three boys—Ilya, Mikha, and […]
French literature
The Patagonian Hare
“Memory is not just the past, it is the future.” Chapter Summaries The Patagonian Hare is Claude Lanzmann’s sprawling memoir, weaving together personal history, philosophical reflections, and accounts […]
French literature
HHhH
“This is a true story.” — Laurent Binet, HHhH Prologue The novel opens with the author reflecting on the nature of historical storytelling, questioning how to faithfully recount […]
French literature
The Map and the Territory
“Art is no longer enough, alas, to fill a man’s life.” Chapter 1: Introduction to Jed Martin The novel opens with the introduction of Jed Martin, a reclusive […]
American literature
Mockingjay
“Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!” Part I: The Ashes Katniss Everdeen wakes up in the underground District 13, which was believed to […]