Tubame ha modo xtu te ko nai
Native title: 燕は戻ってこない
Translated title: The Swallows Won't Come Back
Author: Kirino, Natuo
Genre: Social Novel
Year: 2024 | Pages: 472 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 88599
This body is civilization's last tool.
29 years old, female, single, from the countryside, working part-time.
She traded her uterus, freedom, and dignity to a complete stranger and became a 'surrogate mother' in Tokyo. Riki, a 29-year-old woman, quit her job as a caregiver in Hokkaido and took a dream job as a hospital administrator in Tokyo, but her part-time employment has left her in dire straits. Her coworker, Teru, encouraged her to donate eggs, promising a good side income. Though hesitant, she visits the Japanese branch of Plante, an American reproductive medicine clinic, where she is approached about surrogacy, a practice not permitted in Japan.
Winner of the 64th Mainichi Art Award.
Winner of the 57th Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Award
Kotira yokohama po-to sithi hudousan
Translated title: This is Yokohama Port City Real Estate
Author: Migite, Morikentomi
Genre: Mystery
Year: 2023 | Pages: 224 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85536
Mari Hamano, whose previous employer went bankrupt, begins working at Yokohama Port City Real Estate in Naka Ward, Yokohama City. However, the company president seems to do no work at all, and is an eccentric character who starts drinking in his car in the evenings. He often doesn't show up at the office for about a week at a time. But Mari finds it strange that various people visit the president and leave with smiles on their faces after talking to him.
One day, a frail-looking elderly woman visits Port City Real Estate. She is Kimiko Nagata, the wife of Kinzo Nagata, a local landowner who died suddenly two months ago, and she says, 'My husband was a wealthy man, and now there's a dispute over the inheritance, so I need your help.' As Yokoi and Mari interview the eccentric heirs, they get closer to uncovering the full extent of Kinzo's assets, and gradually, an unknown side of Kinzo is revealed. A mystery entertainment novel set in Yokohama City, with 'inheritance' and 'real estate' as its themes!
Syounen rouzyou
Translated title: Boys in Siege
Author: Tadaken, Gentarou
Genre: Mystery
Year: 2023 | Pages: 416 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85560
A gruesome murder combined with a hostage situation at a children's cafeteria: the ultimate suspense mystery.
The brutally murdered body of a child is discovered on the riverbank in a rural hot spring town. Police increasingly suspect Toma, a 15-year-old boy who has a history of child molestation.
Toma, on the run, steals a police officer's gun and barricades himself in a children's cafeteria with his henchmen. He claims to be innocent and demands that the police catch the real killer if they don't want their hostages killed.
Tsukasa, the owner of the children's cafeteria, vows to fight to protect the boys and girls being held hostage - but is Toma truly innocent? Is there another murderer? As another body is discovered, Toma, spiraling out of control, puts his finger on the trigger - a suspense mystery with an ending no one could have predicted
City Pop Tampen Shu
Native title: シティポップ短篇集
Translated title: City Pop Short Story Collection
Author: Kataoka, Yosio
Genre: Short Stories
Year: 2024 | Pages: 328 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 88611
The 80's, when city pop was born. What was Japanese 'literature' doing in the same period? Behind the pop music revived by fans on social networking sites around the world lies the world of urban literature, which was born out of the same historical circumstances and developed in a similarly original Japanese way. It was a literature based on real urban life, but idealized behind a veil of fiction, fictionalizing the 'city' and 'nowhere' in the writers' dreams. The '9 Stories' in this book are forgotten Japanese urban novels that ran parallel to the City Pop Era. A gentle wind is still blowing there today
Mingzhu qí bian
Translated title: Famous Novels and Oddities
Author: Hiiragi, Sanaka
Genre: Horror / Short Stories
Year: 2023 | Pages: 240 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85516
'Night on the Galactic Railroad', 'The Moon Over the Mountain', 'Run, Melos!' etc. Those masterpieces are reborn as bizarre tales. Classic literature meets horror mystery. A new kind of short story that reaches into the darkest parts of the human heart
Ro ru kyabetu
Translated title: Cabbage Rolls
Author: Morisawa, Akio
Genre: Social Novel
Year: 2023 | Pages: 416 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85539
You can rewrite the script of your life!
What changed Makoto Natsukawa, a second-year university student with no dreams or hobbies, were his friends who participated in 'chairing,' a simple pastime of just sitting in a chair.
A coming-of-age entrepreneurial novel from the author of 'The Coffee Shop at Rainbow Cape' and 'Natsumi's Fireflies!'
What is chairing? It's carrying a chair around and relaxing wherever you like. So, grab your chair and go out
Tumi no nenrin
Native title: 罪の年輪
Translated title: The Rings of Sin
Author: Douba, Syuniti
Genre: Crime
Year: 2024 | Pages: 416 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 88593
The body of 87-year-old Komura Harukichi, a former elementary school teacher, was discovered on the banks of the Tamagawa Canal. Iwakura was perplexed by the elderly victim, but Mishima Terumasa, who eventually turned himself in, was also 87 years old, making him Iwakura's oldest suspect. Mishima honestly confesses to the circumstances of the murder, but for some reason, he stubbornly refuses to reveal his motive. What is the truth behind this murder that took place 60 years after they first met?
Yomei 1 niti no boku ga, kimi ni tumu gu monogatari
Translated title: A Story I'll Tell You with Only One Day Left to Live
Author: Kitomo, Na
Genre: Social Novel
Year: 2023 | Pages: 320 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85525
I will never give up on tomorrow, and I will never give up on you. My memories only last one day. One morning, novelist Kishimoto Akira learns a shocking truth from one of his own writings.
Due to an accident that left him with anterograde amnesia, he has forgotten everything that happened yesterday. The death of memory is the same as the death of a novelist. In his despair, he meets a woman named Tsubasa, and in search of hope, he begins to write novels again...
This is a story of never giving up on tomorrow
Osana ki mono no satuzin
Translated title: The Murder of a Child - Eve & Rourke
Author: Robb, J. D.
Genre: Thriller
Year: 2023 | Pages: 592 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85553
Translated
A woman's body is discovered in a park at dawn. She's dressed in outdated, flashy clothes and makeup, yet sporting new earrings and a butterfly tattoo. Beneath the victim's hand, which seems to belong to someone else, lies a card scrawled with the words 'Bad Mom' in childish handwriting. Eve tries to narrow down the suspect profile as she investigates, but the investigation stalls, and then, unbelievably, a second victim with the same appearance is discovered
Onegai Omurice
Author: Nakagawa, Hinako
Genre: Short Stories
Year: 2023 | Pages: 304 | Origin: JAP | BA Seq Num: 85545
This collection of five interconnected short stories vividly portrays the unpredictable lives of the people gathered at the Gurufes festival through lighthearted dialogue and relatable characters. Stories include 'Onegai Omurice', depicting a man struggling to make ends meet despite unsuccessful job hunting; 'Carolina Reaper', portraying a sister grappling with the sad news of her older sister's death; and 'Fuchimochi no Uta', about a middle-aged man in his late fifties who is laid off and now juggles caring for his mother. Tears, healing, sadness, pain, laughter... this heartwarming and inspiring novel is packed with the struggles and challenges of human existence
