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The Amberglow Candy Store
79,000 TNDWelcome to the Amberglow Candy Store. The confections can give you what you most desire, but not in the way you expect . .
At the end of Gloaming Lane, at the very edge of the otherworld, is the Amberglow Candy Store, open only between the full moon and the new moon. Behind the cosy caramel-timber facade is Kogetsu, the store’s half-fox proprietor, whose wagashi confections promise to change the lives of his customers for the better. Kogetsu’s door is always open to anyone in need of solace – a lovesick teenage girl, a cripplingly shy estate agent, a struggling first time mother.
But who is this mysterious proprietor? A half-fox spirit he may be. But why is he so interested in his customers and their emotions? And why does each sweet have a recommended ‘dosage’?Like the centre of the chewiest caramel, life’s most valuable teachings always take time to reveal themselves, and Kogetsu’s customers are about to get a lot more than they bargained for . . -
The Beast Player
49,000 TNDElin’s family have an important responsibility: caring for the fearsome water serpents that form the core of their kingdom’s army. So when some of the beasts mysteriously die, Elin’s mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath she manages to send her daughter to safety.
Alone, far from home, Elin soon discovers that she can talk to both the terrifying water serpents and the majestic flying beasts that guard her queen. This skill gives her great powers, but it also involves her in deadly plots that could cost her life. Can she save herself and prevent her beloved beasts from being used as tools of war? Or must she face the terrible battles to come? -
The Beast Warrior
49,000 TNDTen years have passed since the events of The Beast Player. Elin and Ialu are married, with a young son, living a quiet, peaceful life when one day Elin is called upon to investigate a matter of great urgency: the fearsome Toda are dying and nobody knows why. As Elin investigates, she uncovers a deadly plot and a brewing invasion.
Can she protect her homeland without allowing her beloved beasts to be used as weapons of war, or will she have to compromise her principles to save her family? -
The Black Swan Mystery
59,000 TNDEarly one morning, a body is found lying next to the railway tracks just outside of Kuki Station in Saitama Prefecture, shot dead. It is identified as belonging to the owner of a local mill which is embroiled in a labour dispute. Suspicion initially falls on the workers’ union, then on a new religious sect that has been gaining followers recently.
Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are called in to investigate, and soon set off in a journey across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, and finally to the island of Kyushu, in a hunt for the killer.
But as they investigate, the killer strikes again, and again.
Will they be able to catch the murderer before even more people are slain?
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The Blanket Cats
59,000 TNDit left me feeling hopeful that a small step in the right direction is what it takes to make things better” Shanna Tan, translator of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop “The Blanket Cats is a triumph” Jinwoo Chong, award-winning author of FluxFlux and I Leave It Up to YouIs three days with a cat enough to change your life?The troubled and anxious of Tokyo are desperate to find out. They all have their problems – and they all want to believe that a feline companion from a unique pet shop can help them find a solution.
But there are rules: they must be returned after three days, and they must always sleep in their own familiar blankets. In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven such customers, including a couple struggling with infertility, a middle-aged woman on the run from the police, and two families in very different circumstances simply seeking joy. But like all their kind, the blanket cats are mysterious creatures with their own unknowable agendas, who delight in confounding expectations.
And perhaps what their hosts are looking for isn’t what they really need. Three days may not be enough to change your life. But it might be enough to change how you see it.
“There’s more to the mysterious Blanket Cats than meets the eye. Shigematsu’s canny felines are adept at bringing clarity to their temporary owners and giving them a subtle nudge in another – often unexpected – direction” Cat Anderson, translator of The Chibineko KitchenTranslated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
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The Blanket Cats
69,000 TNDThe troubled and anxious of Tokyo are desperate to find out. They all have their problems – and they all want to believe that a feline companion from a unique pet shop can help them find a solution.
But there are rules: they must be returned after three days, and they must always sleep in their own familiar blankets.
In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven such customers, including a couple struggling with infertility, a middle-aged woman on the run from the police, and two families in very different circumstances simply seeking joy.
But like all their kind, the blanket cats are mysterious creatures with their own unknowable agendas, who delight in confounding expectations. And perhaps what their hosts are looking for isn’t what they really need.
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The Boy and the Dog
49,000 TNDThe new novel from the award-winning translator of Sweet Bean Paste Winner of the Naoki Prize Winner of the Society of Authors Sasakawa Foundation Prize Perfect for fans of The Guest Cat and Before the Coffee Gets Cold ‘It’s no wonder the author won the prestigious Naoki Prize for this novel, which is at times heartwarming and suspenseful, detailing true resilience and survival.’ Belfast Telegraph ‘Everyone, please read this English translation and keep a handkerchief nearby.’ Nozomi Abe, Sasakawa Prize judgeOne dog changes the life of everyone who takes him in on his journey to reunite with his first owner in this inspiring tribute to the bond between humans and dogs and the life-affirming power of connection. Following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, a young man in Japan finds a stray dog outside a convenience store. The dog’s tag says “Tamon,” a name evocative of the guardian deity of the north.
The man decides to keep Tamon, becoming the first in a series of owners as the dog journeys south to find the boy whom disaster tore him from. Over the course of five years, Tamon will be taken into six vastly different homes, the final one belonging to his beloved first owner, Hikaru, a boy who has not spoken since the trauma of the tsunami. An agent of fate, Tamon is a gift to everyone who welcomes him into their life.
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The Cabinet
59,000 TNDWinner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea’s most prestigious literary prizeCabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet. Except this cabinet is filled with files on the ‘symptomers’, people whose weird abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species. But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker who spends his days looking after the cabinet, the symptomers are just a headache; from the woman whose doppelganger broke up with her boyfriend, to the man with a ginkgo tree growing from his fingertip.
And then there’s that guy who won’t stop calling, asking to be turned into a cat…A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most ordinary lives, from one of South Korea’s most acclaimed novelists. Translated by Sean Lin HalbertFile Under: Fiction [ 12,000 Cans of Beer | Memory Mosaicers | Will Execution Inc. | Monkey of All Bombs ]
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The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen
69,000 TNDFor fans of WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY and BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, discover the second book in the irresistibly uplifting Japanese hit series about cats and the healing power of food. **Contains four mouth-watering recipes**The Chibineko Kitchen is no ordinary restaurant: the food can bring someone you’ve lost back to you, for one last time. It’s been months since Kotoko first visited the tiny restaurant by the sea.
Now she works there, alongside the chef Kai and his mischievous kitten Chibi. One sunny morning, the restaurant opens its doors to Nagi, a young woman facing an impossible choice. Should she marry her boyfriend, despite knowing she only has a few years left to live, or protect him from pain by refusing? She is desparate for advice from the one person no longer around to give it – her mother.
Next to visit are an anxious man rebuilding his life after shutting himself away for years, a lonely widow unaware that she is surrounded by friends, and an actor hoping to rekindle his career. Each leaves the restaurant nourished and reminded of what matters most in life. Moving and irresistibly uplifting, The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen is a culinary hug for the soul.
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The Cat Who Saved Books
49,000 TNDBut what is that power really?Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created.
He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse. After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone.
It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission.
This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone -
The Cat Who Saved the Library
59,000 TNDNanami sees nothing wrong with a library and cat combination. But a talking cat is a whole other story.
Thirteen-year-old Nanami Kosaki loves reading. The local library is a home from home and books have become her best friends.
When Nanami notices books disappearing from the library shelves, she’s particularly curious about a suspicious man in a grey suit whose furtive behaviour doesn’t feel right. Should she follow him to see what he’s up to?
When a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears to warn her about how dangerous that would be, together they’re brave enough to follow the frightening trail to find out where all the books have gone. Will Nanami and Tiger overcome the challenges of the adventure ahead?
Warm, wonderful and wise, Sosuke Natsukawa’s The Cat Who Saved the Library is also a powerful lesson never to underestimate the value of great literature, and a reminder always to think for ourselves, no matter what our charismatic leaders might say. -
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
59,000 TNDWhen he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he’s willing to lose.