- What You’re Looking For is in The Library
A Time Magazine Top 100 Best Book of the year
Already loved by thousands of readers, an inspirational tale of the love, comfort and growth you can find in the pages of a good book.
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What are you looking for?
So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi.
But she is no ordinary librarian.
Sensing exactly what someone is searching for in life, she provides just the book recommendation to help them find it.
We meet five visitors to the library, each at a different crossroads:
– The restless retail assistant eager to pick up new skills
– The mother faced with a demotion at work after maternity leave
– The conscientious accountant who yearns to open an antique store
– The gifted young manga artist in search of motivation
– The recently retired salaryman on a quest for newfound purpose
Can she help them find what they are looking for?
Which book will you recommend?
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For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this feel-good Japanese book shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a life.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS’ AWARD
- Water Moon
Would you rewrite your destiny if it meant losing a part of your past?
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On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it.
Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.
Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.
Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.
But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back.
Step into the captivating and romantic fantasy novel that will sweep you away on an unforgettable adventure.
Readers are already enchanted by Water Moon!
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- Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
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We all have an ikigai.
It’s the Japanese word for ‘a reason to live’ or ‘a reason to jump out of bed in the morning’.
It’s the place where your needs, desires, ambitions, and satisfaction meet. A place of balance. Small wonder that finding your ikigai is closely linked to living longer.
Finding your ikigai is easier than you might think. This book will help you work out what your own ikigai really is, and equip you to change your life. You have a purpose in this world: your skills, your interests, your desires and your history have made you the perfect candidate for something. All you have to do is find it.
Do that, and you can make every single day of your life joyful and meaningful.
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- We’ll Prescribe You a Cat
THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT!
Contains five exquisite line-drawings.
For fans of THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES, discover the award-winning heartwarming sensation.
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A cat a day keeps the doctor away …
On the top floor of an old building at the end of a cobbled alley in Kyoto lies the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only a select few – those who feel genuine emotional pain – can find it.
The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients: it prescribes cats as medication.
Get ready to fall in love:
– Bee, an eight-year-old female, mixed breed helps a disheartened businessman as he finds unexpected joy in physical labour;
– Margot, muscly like a lightweight boxer, helps a middle-aged callcentre worker stay relevant at work and at home;
– Koyuki, an exquisite white cat brings closure to a young mother troubled by the memory of the rescue kitten she was forced to abandon;
– Tank and Tangerine bring peace to a hardened handbag designer, as she learns to be kinder to herself;
– Mimita, the Scottish Fold kitten helps a broken-hearted Geisha to stop blaming herself for the cat she lost years ago;
As the clinic’s patients navigate their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them towards healing, self-discovery and newfound hope.
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Japanese bestseller, October 2023
- Murder at Mt. Fuji
A CLASSIC MYSTERY FROM JAPAN’S QUEEN OF CRIME
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When American student Jane Prescott is invited to spend the holidays with her classmate Chiyo, she jumps at the chance to see in the new year at a luxurious mansion at the foot of Mount Fuji. Chiyo belongs to one of Japan’s wealthiest families, the heiress to a pharmaceutical empire headed up by Yohei ‘Grandpa’ Wada.
With the whole Wada family gathered and snow falling outside, the festivities are in full swing. That is, until Chiyo bursts into the room – covered in blood, holding a knife, and screaming that she has stabbed her grandfather to death.
Stunned, the family closes ranks to protect one of its own – but Jane alone has more questions than answers. Could her sweet, timid friend really be capable of such violence? Did any other member of the Wada clan stand to gain everything with the patriarch’s death? And if so, could the real murderer still be in their midst?
Packed full of atmosphere and nostalgia, and with a dark, gritty mystery at its heart, MURDER AT MOUNT FUJI is the perfect rediscovered classic novel for fans of Japanese translated fiction and cosy crime.
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- The Little Sparrow Murders
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“With a pinch of John Dickson Carr and a dash of Agatha Christie, solver of impossible crimes” Kosuke Kindaichi returns for another murder mystery (The New York Times)
As several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses echoing the lyrics of a children’s song, the quirky, endearing Japanese detective must string together the clues to solve this fiendish puzzle
The scruffy detective Kosuke Kindaichi returns to solve another satisfying stand-alone murder mystery.
Dive into Japanese Literature this January
An old friend of Kindaichi’s invites the detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe, the site of a 20-year-old unsolved murder case. But no sooner has Kindaichi in the village than a new series of murders strikes – several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that eerily echo the lyrics of an old local children’s song…
As the legendary sleuth investigates, he soon realises that he must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its feuding families, to get to the truth.
The Little Sparrow Murders is the sixth classic Detective Kindaichi mystery to be published by Pushkin Vertigo. Kosuke Kindaichi is Japan’s best-loved and most famous fictional sleuth, and Seishi Yokomizo one of the country’s greatest crime writers. His whodunnits have sold an astonishing 55 million copies in his home country.
