Good morning everyone and happy Tuesday. I’m a huge fan of translated fiction and here are three books I want to read soon!
🩵 Letters From The Ginza Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda
💙The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang
💛 Butter by Asako Yuzuki
I’m hoping to choose a translated book for my April book club choice at Rossiter books so I’ll be reading these soon. My colleague has already chosen Butter for one of her books club choices later next year so it’s between the other two. I’m currently reading and loving The Rainfall Market so I’m leaning towards that book but it would be good to support a smaller publisher with the Stationery Shop. Butter has been getting lots of hype recently as it won the Books Are My Bag Awards prize for fiction and Waterstones has announced it as their book of the year so im very intrigued!
I’m off this morning and I’m meeting my mum for coffee at hers as she’s having to wait in to receive a parcel which happens to be my Christmas present (very intrigued). I’ve then got to go shopping as we’re having mince pies and mulled wine at our bookclub tonight. I’m then working which is always fun before hosting our bookclub tonight which I always love. There’s some great girls who come so it’s always great to catch up.
Find out more about the books below ⬇️
Do you like translated fiction? Any recommendations for me?
Letters From The Ginza Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda
From the publishers of the international bestseller Days at the Morisaki Bookshop comes a new book about the beauty of humble objects, the power of writing, and reconnecting with those you have lost.
Write a letter, heal your heart . . .
Hidden away in a corner of the Ginza neighbourhood is a venerable stationery shop. To venture inside is to find everything your stationery-loving heart desires, from the most delicate paper to fountain pens that fit exactly to the shape of your hand to gorgeously coloured inks. The shop owner intuits your every need, inviting you to take a seat at a small wooden table on the top floor, where you’ll find the words flowing, helping you unlock repressed memories, secret longings and your own mysteries.
To this shop comes a young company employee, uncertain in his career and needing a connection back to his past; the hostess of an elegant club; the vice-captain of a high-school archery team, an ageing businessman and a formerly homeless sushi chef. With impeccable manners and a warm demeanour, the shop owner helps each of them with more than just their stationery needs.
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang
On the first day of the monsoon an old ramshackle building appears.
This is The Rainfall Market.
Inside you will find magical bookstores, hairdressers, perfumeries and anything your heart desires.
But you cannot enter without an invitation.
Serin, who lives in a small flat with her mother and dreams of a bigger, better life, can’t believe her luck when she receives a ticket inviting her to step inside The Rainfall Market.
Once inside she will have the opportunity to swap her life for a new one.
A better one.
Accompanied by Isha the cat and followed by a mysterious shadow, Serin tentatively steps inside. There she is told she has just one week to choose the perfect life and find true happiness.
However, there is a catch.
If she doesn’t find her dream life, she’ll be trapped inside the market forever . . .
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story, and translated by Polly Barton.
There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.
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