The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
  • Published: 16 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241311905
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $22.99

The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 Apr 2019
EBook
28 Jun 2018
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A major anthology of great Japanese short stories, now in Penguin Classics

This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable works being written today. Short story writers already well-known to English-language readers are all included here - Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata - but also many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's 'Flames' to Yuten Sawanishi's 'Filling Up with Sugar', from Shin'ichi Hoshi's 'Shoulder-Top Secretary' to Banana Yoshimoto's 'Bee Honey', The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, charm, beauty and comedy.

Curated by Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated several of the stories, and introduced by Haruki Murakami, this book will be a revelation to its readers.
  • Published: 16 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241311905
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Jay Rubin

Jay Rubin is the author of Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State and Making Sense of Japanese, and he edited Modern Japanese Writers for the Scribner Writers Series. He has translated into English two novels by the Japanese writer Soseki Natsume, and also Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and after the quake.

Also by Jay Rubin

Making Sense of Japanese
Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words
See all

Praise for The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories

Brilliant, startling, a goldmine ... unfolds like an idiosyncratic mixtape, compiled with expert zeal by veteran translator Jay Rubin ... incredibly varied. Horror and mythology jostle with character comedies, domestic dramas and Proustian reveries ... it challenges notions of what translated literature should be

Alex Dudok de Wit, Daily Telegraph

A feast of literature, a smorgasbord of over 30 widely varied modern Japanese writers ... Each lodges itself in memory ... Penguin's new anthology is a literature lover's dream, page after page of memorable writing, stories that leave a lasting impression yet can be fully absorbed in one sitting

Kris Kosaka, Japan Times

An exhilarating glimpse into Japanese literature

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