Hi, folks,
The Japanese Literature Challenge is hosted by Meredith at Dolce Bellezza since 2006. This year, the event will run from January to March, and there is only one requirement: to read at least one work of Japanese literature in this period. Here you can find a suggested reading list.
I’m trying not to be overly ambitious here, so this time I will commit to reading at least one of the following titles:
- Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata, tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori (2018. Original: コンビニ人間, 2016)
- Territory of Light, by Yūko Tsushima, tr. Geraldine Harcourt (2018. Original: 光の領分, 1979)
- The Goddess Chronicle, by Natsuo Kirino, tr.
- A Riot of Goldfish, by Kanoko Okamoto, tr. J. Keith Vincent (2010. Original: 金魚撩乱, 1937/ 食魔, 1941)
In case you are looking for suggestions, here are some of the books I read in previous challenges & highly recommend:
- Masks, by Fumiko Enchi, tr. Juliet Winters Carpenter (1983. Original: 女面, Onna Men, 1958)
- The Sarashina diary: a woman’s life in eleventh-century Japan, by ‘Lady Sarashina’, tr. Sonja Arntzen & Itō Moriyuki (2014. Original: 更級日記, Sarashina Nikki, c. 1060)
- Beauty and Sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata, tr. Howard Hibbett (1996. Original: 美しさと哀しみと, Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to, 1964)
- The Diary of Lady Murasaki, by Murasaki Shikibu, tr. Richard Bowring (2005. Original: 紫式部日記, Murasaki Shikibu Nikki, c. 1008-1010)
- Chorus of Mushrooms, by Hiromi Goto (1994)
- The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka (2011)
- Naomi, by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, tr. Anthony H. Chambers (2001. Original: 痴人の愛, Chijin no Ai, 1924)
- Kokoro, by Natsume Sōseki, tr. Meredith McKinney (2010. Original: こころ, Kokoro, 1914)
What are you planning to read? I’d love to get more recommendations of Japanese female authors! 🙂
Yours truly,
J.
I enjoyed Convenience Store Woman so much. I hope you manage to read it over the coming months.
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Thank you, Cathy! I am certainly looking forward to it. If everything goes according to plan, I may read it in February… 🙂
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I, too, loved Convenience Store Woman. I highly recommend that from your possible titles to be read. (I also loved Naomi, and Beauty and Sadness, which you have read before. I would like to mention that Frances and I are having a read-along of The Pillow Book in February should you wish to join that, I am so glad to have you along again, and thank you for publishing your thoughts. Also, the look of your blog is gorgeous (as usual). It always soothes my heart. xo
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Thank you, Meredith! ❤ I am very tempted to join in the readalong, I will just check if the book is available on my local library!
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What a great challenge, and how impressive to have organized it for all these years!
I have “Convenience Store Woman”, by Sayaka Murata on my table – ready to read.
🙂
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Thank you, Sigrun, I think it is amazing of Meredith to keep the event going 🙂 Convenience Store Woman is high on my list, I plan to read it in February!
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Great list! And like everyone else says, Convenience Store Woman was a great read. Last year, I read The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike, a 1986 horror novel, and also The Master Key by Masako Togawa, originally published in 1962, a mystery set in an apartment building for single women.
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Thank you for the recommendations, Sharlene! I will check if those books are available in my local library 🙂
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