Tawada was born in Tokyo, received her undergraduate education at Waseda University in 1982 with a major in Russian literature, then studied at Hamburg University where she received a master's degree in contemporary German literature. Juliet Winters Carpenter)Īn I-Noveltells the story of two sisters while taking up urgent questions of identity, race, and language.Yōko Tawada ( 多和田葉子 Tawada Yōko, born March 23, 1960) is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. 2021) offers original translations of key texts-many available for the first time in English-by central actors in Japan’s transition to the modern era, including the works of Inoue Enryō, Gesshō, Hara Tanzan, Shimaji Mokurai, Kiyozawa Manshi, Murakami Senshō, Tanaka Chigaku, and Shaku Sōen. Buddhism and Modernity: Sources from Nineteenth-Century Japan Edited by Orion Klautau and Hans Martin Krämerīuddhism and Modernity (University of Hawaii Press, Oct. 2021) Dreux Richard presents post-Fukushima Japan in three illustrative parts, in areas where the consequences of national policy are felt: immigration, population decline, and the nuclear industry.ħ. In Every Human Intention, (Pantheon, Feb. Every Human Intention: Japan in the New Century, by Dreux Richard Publisher: JPIC (March, 2021) Chad Kohalyk’s Picks:Ħ. Noh actor Yasuda Noboru offers a uniquely personal and accessible introduction to noh as living art. Noh is recognized as one of the oldest and greatest theatrical traditions in the world and inspired generations of writers and scholars in Japan and around the world. Noh as Living Art: Inside Japan’s Oldest Theatrical Tradition by Yasuda Noboru (Transl. Klara and the Sun, (Knopf March, 2021) the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world. Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys…and Baseball In 3 Streets (New Directions, June 2021) each of these stories glows, and opens up into new dimensions of the work of the magisterial author of The Emissary and Memoirs of a Polar Bear. Who will make it to the last station? An original and propulsive thriller from a Japanese bestseller. In Bullet Train ( Harvill Secker March 2021) five killers find themselves on a bullet train from Tokyo competing for a suitcase full of money.

Bullet Train, by Kotaro Isaka (Transl.Here are our March picks for new and upcoming releases on Japan or by Japanese authors: Renae Lucas-Hall’s Picks:

Here at Books on Asia, we’re always looking for the next great read.

3 Streets by Yōko Tawada