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The Wizard’s Bakery
59,000 TNDFor a desperate runaway teen, it’s a refuge from a fractured home – until he discovers the pastries hold magic: madeleines to fix broken hearts, almond bars to unearth memories buried deep within and cinnamon cookies for your worst enemies. But each of these items come with a warning: the power contained in the treats inevitably alters the order of the world and can produce dramatic consequences for those who consume them, consequences that need to be weighed carefully. Under the stern eye of the bakery’s gruff wizard and his mysterious blue-haired assistant, the boy learns about the responsibility that comes with working in a bakery where every bite comes with a price.
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The Woman Dies
69,000 TNDFEMINIST TALES FROM JAPAN BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF WHERE THE WILD LADIES AREPiercing, inventive, and darkly humorous, the fifty-two stories in Aoko Matsuda’s The Woman Dies explore the persistent and pervasive sexism faced by women in modern-day Japan. The normalization of violence against women on screen and in the media is confronted in the story ‘The Woman Dies’, while others invest inanimate objects with their own perspectives, examine the aesthetics of technology, and use clever wordplay to riff off the absurdity of contemporary life. Masterfully translated by Polly Barton, the translator of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, The Woman Dies is more than a simple thrill ride.
Blending humour, surrealism, and sharp social critique, it’s a vast, multifaceted theme park of ideas by one of Japan’s most exciting writers. ?Praise for Where the Wild Ladies Are, a Time magazine Best Book of 2022“Delightfully uncanny… Matsuda’s retellings are feminist with a vengeance.” —New York Times Book Review “Funny, beautiful, surreal and relatable, this is a phenomenal book.”—The Guardian “Softly electrifying.” —The Atlantic“Delightful, sharp, poignant.”—Literary Hub
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The Woman in the Purple Skirt
59,000 TND‘Chilling.’ Vogue’As unusual as it is alluring.’ Elle’Delightfully disturbing.’ Refinery 29’Very powerful.’ Sayaka Murata’Disquieting.’ Paula Hawkins’You will be obsessed.’ Leila SlimaniThe Woman in the Purple Skirt is being watched. Someone is following her, always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes; what she eats; whom she speaks to. But this invisible observer isn’t a stalker – it’s much more complicated than that.
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There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job
69,000 TNDHow will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly – how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she’s not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful… _______________‘An irreverent but thoughtful voice, with light echoes of Haruki Murakami … the book is uncannily timely …
a novel as smart as is quietly funny’ – Financial Times’Polly Barton’s translation skilfully captures the protagonist’s dejected, anxious voice and her deadpan humour … imaginative and unusual’ – Times Literary Supplement
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To the Moon
59,000 TNDIn Seoul, three young women meet while working mundane desk jobs at a confectionary manufacturer. They become fast friends, taking their conversations out of the group chat as they bond over their ‘average’ employee report cards, the incompetence of their male team leader and a mutual longing for financial freedom amid mediocre raises.
Eun-sang, the eldest of the group, is always looking for ways to earn extra money, but faces trouble at work after she opens a mini mart at her desk.
Jisong, the youngest, dreams of a perfect romance with her Taiwanese boyfriend and spends her low salary on trips to Taipei.
Meanwhile, Dahae searches endlessly for a better apartment – albeit one she can actually afford.
One day over lunch, Eun-sang announces a plan to make enough money to quit her job, by investing her life’s savings in cryptocurrency. What’s more, she thinks the others should join her. All they need to do, she says, is hold on tight and wait for the price to skyrocket . . . to the moon. But as the market begins to fluctuate and spiral out of their control, the fate of their friendships – and their futures – soon hangs in the balance. -
Tokyo Express
49,000 TND‘An irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly-plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose’ Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train ‘Matsumoto was Japan’s Agatha Christie’ Laura Hackett, The Sunday Times’It was a puzzle with no solution. But he did not lose heart.’In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast’s wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple’s cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers’ suicide.
But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime… Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seicho Matsumoto’s masterpiece – and as one of the most fiendish puzzles ever written.
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Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
49,000 TNDThis engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi-who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity. In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan’s most popular television personalities-Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and
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Two Women Living Together
79,000 TND‘Two Women Living Together is a wonderfully calming and cosy read. I always adore stories of women who choose to live beyond the confines of cultural expectation—and this book might just be my new favourite!’ – Emma Gannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a former judge for the 2025 Women’s Prize. ‘Everything about this compelling, curious, beautiful story of two women moving in together, in midlife, is delightful …
I loved every moment!’ – Clover Stroud, author of My Wild & Sleepless Nights, The Red of my Blood, and The Giant on the SkylineQuietly radical, full of warmth and wit, Two Women Living Together celebrates carving out your own path, cats, female friendship, and found family. At some point between living alone and becoming single, Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana found each other, and decided to live together in a nice apartment where their four cats would finally have the freedom to run around. Together they redefined what family looks and feels like.
At a time housing costs have skyrocketed whilst the birth rates plummets, these two independent Korean women in their late forties share their views on society and its expectations of them. And, intent neither to marry or to live alone, they reflect on the comfort of their cohabiting friendship as it blossoms into a life full of joy and meaning. ‘Inspiring’ – Evening Standard’Beneath the warmth lies a radical proposition: that their partnership should be treated like any family.’ – Guardian
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Vanishing World
69,000 TND“Normality is the creepiest madness there is…”From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination. Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide.
Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own. As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable.
As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage-sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest-Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?
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Vanishing World
59,000 TND“Normality is the creepiest madness there is…”From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination. Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide.
Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own. As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable.
As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage-sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest-Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?
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Wabi Sabi : The Wisdom in Imperfection
69,000 TNDBe the best imperfect person you can be!Wabi Sabi is the Japanese Zen philosophy that all things are imperfect, unfinished and impermanent. It is a fresh way of seeing and moving through the world when our lives, literally and figuratively, feel cluttered. This book shows us how to apply this concept in the context of daily life and offers ideas on how to see it, embrace it and incorporate it into everyday thoughts, objects and situations.
In a simple and accessible style, Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection shows you how embracing imperfections and impermanence frees you to become a better person, by reevaluating what “better” means—what really matters and what you truly want. A few simple challenges and exercises encourage you to get creative—such as a Wabi Sabi diary, a haiku exercise and a “make art” challenge—plus some tips on minimizing and decluttering (mentally and physically) for a simpler life. It allows you to mindfully make space in your head, home and with your time.
In the foreword, Hector Garcia— the bestselling author of Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life—introduces readers to the Wabi Sabi aesthetic and shares his personal Wabi Sabi journey: from being asked about it on live TV fifteen years ago (before he knew what it was) to today, when it permeates every aspect of his life.
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We Do Not Part
59,000 TNDKang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history‘One of the most profound and skilled writers working on the contemporary world stage’ Deborah LevyBeginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Hospitalized following an accident, Inseon has begged Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die. Kyungha takes the first plane to Jeju, but a snowstorm hits the island the moment she arrives, plunging her into a world of white.
Beset by icy wind and snow squalls, she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold which envelops her with every step. As night falls, she struggles her way to Inseon’s house, unaware as yet of the descent into darkness which awaits her. There, the long-buried story of Inseon’s family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive documenting a terrible massacre on the island seventy years before.