“I was always asleep. Even when I was awake, I was asleep.” Night and Night’s Travelers The first story follows Shibami, a young woman grieving the death of […]
Japanese literature
Shipwrecks
“The sea was calm, but beneath its surface lurked the unseen currents that would decide their fate.” Chapter 1: The Village by the Sea The story opens in […]
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
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 Hole
“The days were long, but the summer was short. And before I knew it, the cicadas had stopped singing.” Chapter 1: The Move Asa, a young woman, moves […]
Japanese literature
All the Lovers in the Night
“I wanted to be seen, but I didn’t want to be known.” Chapter 1: Fuyuko’s Solitude Fuyuko Irie, a freelance proofreader in her mid-thirties, lives a quiet, isolated […]
Japanese literature
The House of the Sleeping Beauties
“The old man had heard of a house where one could sleep beside a beautiful, drugged young girl, but he had never been there himself.” Chapter 1: The […]
German literature
On the Edge
“The abyss is always closer than you think.” Chapter 1: The Unraveling The novel opens with the protagonist, a middle-aged man named Thomas Clarin, standing on the edge […]
German literature
The Story of Mr Sommer
“He was a man who walked. That was all. He walked and walked and walked.” Chapter 1: The Narrator’s Childhood The unnamed narrator recalls his childhood in a […]
American literature
Where the Crawdads Sing
“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.” Part 1: The Marsh Girl The story begins in 1969 with the discovery of Chase […]