-
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
59,000 TNDWhen twenty-five-year-old Takako’s boyfriend reveals he’s marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle Satoru’s offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above his shop. Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, the Morisaki Bookshop is a booklover’s paradise.
On a quiet corner in an old wooden building, the shop is filled with hundreds of second-hand books. It is Satoru’s pride and joy, and he has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife left him five years earlier. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the shop.
And as summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books. Quirky, beautifully written, and movingly profound, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop will appeal to readers of Before The Coffee Gets Cold, The Cat Who Saved Books, and anyone who has had to recover from a broken heart.
-
Days at the Torunka Cafe
69,000 TNDSet in the back alleys of Yanaka, Tokyo, is a small café called Trnka. It’s here, every Sunday, that a mysterious woman appears. What is the story between her and the part-time barista? What is the relationship between a middle-aged man and a despairing young woman? And how can the shop owner’s daughter, Shizuku, express her love for her classmate?
-
Dead-End Memories
49,000 TNDThe daughter of a restaurant owner experiences a budding romance, accompanied by the ghosts of an elderly couple. After a scandalous near-death experience, an editor gains a new lease of life. A woman seeks refuge in the apartment above her uncle’s bar after being betrayed by her fiancé.
As Yoshimoto’s gentle, effortless prose reminds us, one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to see it. -
Deep River
69,000 TNDA group of Japanese tourists journey to the sacred River Ganges, each on a secret personal pilgrimage. Widower Isobe mourns for the devoted wife he neglected; gentle children’s writer Numanda seeks out the bird he believes saved his life; Kiguchi is haunted by his time as a soldier along the Highway of Death; and Mitsuko reconnects with the classmate she tempted away from the church and cruelly discarded.
At the softly lapping shores of the river – where the faithful come to bathe during their final moments – self-knowledge is sought and memories put to rest. Set against a rich backdrop of 90s India, Deep River is a beautifully moving story showing Endo at the height of his powers as a chronicler of religious experience.
-
Desire
39,000 TNDYou’ve just passed someone on the street who could be the love of your life, the person you’re destined for – what do you do? In Murakami’s world, you tell them a story. The five weird and wonderful tales collected here each unlock the many-tongued language of desire, whether it takes the form of hunger, lust, sudden infatuation or the secret longings of the heart. Selected from Haruki’s Murakami’s short story collections The Elephant Vanishes, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, Men Without WomenVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS.
-
Diary of a Cat
79,000 TNDThe perfect cosy read for 2025 – cats and food come together as the seasons changeMeet Chimaki and Norimaki – two young cats lost in the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo, sniffing out cat-lovers who might be kind enough give them a ride or place to sleep for the night . . .
Until they find a new home with the Horai family, an eccentric assortment of artists, dreamers and caterers who have one thing in common: their love of good food. Inspired by the bougie magazine column written by Madam Horai, Chimaki decides to keep his own diary, inviting us in to share the family’s meals and activities, his younger brother’s comical scrapes, and the movements of a mysterious stranger around the house. His journal follows the change of the seasons from early spring to midwinter, with each entry featuring all kinds of delectable dishes and a wealth of Japanese culinary lore.
Playful, gentle and curiously addictive, Diary of a Cat offers intriguing glimpses into Japanese culture on every page, recipes to follow and characters to fall in love with – all through the eyes of an endearingly curious cat. Translated from the Japanese by Yui Kajita
-
Diary of a Void
59,000 TNDFor the sake of women everywhere, Ms Shibata is going to pull off the mother of all deceptions… ‘Incredibly thought-provoking… you’ll love Yagi’s writing’ STYLISTMs Shibata refuses to clear away the coffee at work one day, because she’s pregnant and can’t bear the smell.
The only thing is . . .
Ms Shibata is not pregnant. Being a mother-to-be isn’t easy. Ms Shibata has a nine-month ruse to keep up.
Before long, it becomes all-absorbing, and with the help of towel-stuffed shirts and a diary app that tracks every stage of her ‘pregnancy’, the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve. Discover this prizewinning, thrillingly subversive new novel that’s perfect for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Breasts and Eggs. ‘A subversive, surreal read that will strike a cord’ RED’One of the most passionate cases I’ve ever read for female interiority, for women’s creative pulse and rich inner life’ NEW YORKERTranslated from the Japanese by David Boyd and Lucy North
-
Dinner at the Night Library
79,000 TNDShe is on the verge of quitting when she receives a message from somebody calling themselves ‘Seven Rainbows’, inviting her to apply for a job at a library with no name, a place referred to simply as ‘The Night Library’. After successfully passing the interview, Otaha arrives at The Night Library and her sunny personality immediately earns her comparisons with Anne of Green Gables. For the very first time she feels she has found her place in the world.
As well as a treasure trove of books, the library houses a group of likeminded literary misfits, including a legendary chef who prepares incredible meals for the library’s employees at the end of each day. Together they embark on a series of bookish adventures. But when the library’s mysterious owner decides to temporarily close the library, Otaha and her friends fear that it may not reopen and that the peace they have found there will be lost to them forever. Is their friendship and their faith in the value of books strong enough to save it? And what will remain if it isn’t? Dinner at the Night Library is a heartwarming literary mystery, filled with quirky characters, Japanese culture and the mouthwatering meals.
It asks why books matter and offers a cheer of encouragement to everybody who believes they do. Ultimately, it is a paean to reading and the relevance of books through the ages—past, present, and future. -
Free Food for Millionaires
59,000 TNDCasey Han’s four years at Princeton gave her many things, “But no job and a number of bad habits.” Casey’s parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As she navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives around her, culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots. FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch, Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one’s identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.
-
Greek Lessons
59,000 TNDIn a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.
Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.
-
Heaven
49,000 TNDIn Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies.
Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror?
-
Hotel Iris
49,000 TNDIn a crumbling, seaside hotel on the coast of Japan, quiet, seventeen-year-old Mari works the front desk as her mother fusses over the off-season customers. When, one night, they are forced to eject a prostitute and a middle-aged man from his room, Mari finds herself drawn to the man’s voice, in what will become the first gesture of a long seduction. Mari begins to visit the mysterious man at his island home, and he initiates her into a dark realm of both pain and pleasure.
As Mari’s mother and the police begin to close in on the illicit affair, events move to a dramatic climax. By the author of The Housekeeper and the Professor