Also, a pro tip: The Akutagawa Prize is a twice-annual prize awarded to new or rising authors. The winning novels often get translated into English, and the works are almost always short. If you’re looking to dip your toe into Japanese fiction or looking to try something very new and cutting-edge, finding the Akutagawa winners are good ways to find something exciting. Books that won are marked with a * after the title, and authors who won for a different work are also marked with a * after their name.

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

You might already know who Murakami is. You may have seen copies of his massive novel 1Q84 in a bookstore or heard tell of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. But if you’re not ready to jump in with both feet, start with his short fiction. The word “surreal” gets bandied about, but Murakami is more like a modern Jungian, writing directly from his unconscious, exploring archetypes and shadows. He taps into very universal ideas with very straightforward, simple prose. But it’s simple the way water is simple: it’s always refreshing and feels, when you’re reading, like you’re taking in something utterly necessary. Each of the stories in this collection is very different, but has that same essential quality.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Yes, Haruki Murakami gets two books on here, partially because he’s one of the most famous living authors in the world, and partially because the two books are extremely different. Norwegian Wood is a departure from his usual style, and it’s also the book that launched his fame. It’s a story of intense nostalgia, longing, and first love versus new love. The impact of this book really can’t be overstated: my Japanese Lit teacher in college changed his major from engineering to Japanese and therefore the entire course of his life because of this book. Novelist Clarissa Goenawan has told us it rekindled her love for stories. It’s not to be underestimated, and not to be missed.

Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto

I hate stories about cheerfully tragic invalids. It’s never been my experience of chronic illness, and it creates all kinds of problematic expectations for sufferers and the people around them. Which is why I love this book. It begins quite frankly: “It’s true: Tsugumi really was an unpleasant young woman.” Tsugumi is furious, stubborn, and wild. She also has a severe health condition. She’s unapologetic about all of it. I love her moxie and the whole story, told from the perspective of her beloved cousin, of a last summer on the beach.

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami*

If you’re a horror fan you might know Ryu Murakami as the author of Audition. Otherwise this “other” Murakami hasn’t quite achieved the level of recognition in the English-reading markets as Haruki. His appeal is more niche, full of graphic violence, absurd horror, and vicious cultural critiques. This novel, about a guide to the red light district of Tokyo who’s hired by a serial killer, is visceral and mesmerising and somehow never feels gratuitous.

Sixty-Nine by Ryu Murakami

Yes, both Murakamis get two books on the list, since Sixty-Nine is also a massive departure from the dark pop Ryu Murakami is known for. And although it’s deliberately titillating, Sixty-Nine is about the year, not the act—and also about the kind of person who snickers when they hear “69.” A pseudo-memoir of his own youthful obsession with rock ‘n’ roll ‘n’ rebellion, this book is exuberant, irreverent, and so much fun.

Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda

If you want to learn more about Japanese legends but don’t want to be scared out of your wits, this collection of stories is for you. A modern setting blends the human world and the spirit world with insight and care, offering optimistic updates to tragic tales and clever twists on old stories. The stories are also actually short, great for commutes or stolen moments.

Star by Yukio Mishima

Mishima’s life is as varied and intense as his works, and the narrative of his death sometimes overshadows his fictional writing. That’s always felt a bit unfair to me, since his prose is lucid and bright. His genius, however, is in using that luminosity to conceal rather than illuminate. Mishima’s writing belies the dark and lurid topics he revels in describing: stories of fanaticism, eroticism, and violence taken to extremes are the cornerstones of his oeuvre. To see if his work is for you, try this short novelette about a movie star, an obsessed fan, and how fame twists the spirit.

The Briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami

Kawakami is probably better-known for Strange Weather in Tokyo, but this novel of two lonely people quietly finding each other is my favourite. Its gentle prose and surface level interactions over food and neighbourhood goings-on both conceal and reveal a deeply tender romance.

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

This is an intensely compassionate story about marginalised people, and the communities that form despite rejection. Sentaro works in a failing dorayaki (red bean pancake) shop, quietly depressed until an elderly woman approaches him and asks for a job. Skeptical at first, he comes to admire her tireless quest for perfect red bean paste. But where has she come from, and why are her hands shaped differently? What he discovers inspires him not to relentless hard work for its own sake, but a deeper sense of meaning.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

This novel is sadly all the more relevant today than even when it was published in English, when it coincided too closely with the Columbine school shooting to really make it in the US market. A fascist state isn’t content to pit citizens against each other in the usual ways. It goes further: it forces children to kill each other, even providing the terrain and the weapons. Dystopian horror-satire hits a little close to home these days, but if you can manage it it’s definitely worth a read.

Bakemonogatari by Nisioisin

Light novels are a category in Japan that doesn’t really have an equivalent here. “Beach reads” or “airport fiction” aren’t quite the same, although if a paperback mystery novel felt like reading an episode of CSI, that’s a bit closer. A lot of Japanese light novels feel like anime or manga. This series in particular is has two “episodes” per volume, and a central convention: a high-schooler named Araragi had a run-in with a vampire, and now solves monster-related mysteries with the help of his oddball mentor and cranky girlfriend. The stories start out a bit wacky, but every single time I read one I find a surprising and thoughtful insight by the end.

The Stones Cry Out* by Hikaru Okuizumi

The past merges with the present in all kinds of ways. Tsuyoshi thinks he understands this as an amateur geologist, lovingly collecting specimens and living a quiet life. But violent seismic shifts affect him as well as the earth beneath his feet, and as he struggles to understand acts of violence, he has to adjust the ways he understands time. This is a novel I would very deliberately call profound, and it still affects me many years after I first read it.

Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura

An intensely psychological study of a woman named Mitsuki, this book asks big questions about how women are expected to age in a youth-obsessed world. While dealing with a serially unfaithful husband and a stressful job, Mitsuki also must take on increasing duties of care for her terminally ill mother. Her mother is not an easy woman—but what is easy, and does Mitsuki want that? I bought this on a whim and didn’t think I would like it much, but was almost immediately drawn in and couldn’t put it down. Its setting is particular, but its themes are absolutely universal.

Ms. Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

Pushkin Press did a series of translations* for Japanese novellas, and my favourite out of all of them was Ms. Ice Sandwich, told from the perspective of a young boy with a crush on his local convenience store worker. A melancholy-tinged story of growing up, this is particularly great on a rainy afternoon, perhaps with a sandwich of your own.

Convenience Store Woman* by Sayaka Murata

Speaking of convenience store workers, this runaway hit is about a woman who just doesn’t fit in. She’s found ways of approximating the kinds of interactions she needs to have with other people, but what she really loves is the calm, orderly world of the convenience store where she works. It gives her life meaning and purpose, and through her, we can see the beauty in what might seem like ordinary displays of chocolate or cases of milk. Yet with pressure from her family and coworkers to have a “normal” life, will she trade her unusual devotion for convention? Finding your place in the world is hard for everyone, no matter who or where they are, and this is a quirkily beautiful expression of both the frustration and the fulfilment of discovering life on your own terms.

Do you have any other recommendations? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Getting Started With Translated Japanese Fiction appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hey Nerds, content contributor Holly here, keeping you in the loop of my reading with the Mid Year Book Freakout tag! As of the end of June, I have read 67 books out of my 75 goal for the year of 2019, which is a total of 23,981 pages! Here’s what I recommend based on what I have read so far in 2019!

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2019?

• Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn: Completely and utterly disturbing. Perfect for the horror lover! Go into this novel with a tough stomach. MAJOR TW FOR CUTTING AND VIOLENCE.
• Misery by Stephen King
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King: Do you notice a trend? We at the Nerd Daily are fascinated by the macabre.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2019

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand: Killer, kickass, magical queens. What more could you want?

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To?

• Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
• Inspection by Josh Malerman

Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2019

• Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren: I’m complete and utter trash for this duo.
• Song of the Abyss by Makiia Lucier: Thanks to The Nerd Daily, I’ll be reading an ARC and uploading a review soon!
• American Royals by Katharine McGee
• The Institute by Stephen King
• The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
• And like every other person on this planet… The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

Biggest Disappointment?

• Ruin & Rising and Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo: Sorry, I just don’t understand the hype. After finishing this series, I said hello to a MAJOR book slump. The trilogy just could not live up to the hype.
• Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy: nothing happened… never in a book have I experienced so much talk of action but no actual action. I was so hyped to get an arc but it had to be one of the largest disappointments so far.
• Fire & Blood by George R R Martin: Um this was a as boring as a history textbook. Can we just get Winds of Winter already?!

Biggest Surprise?

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel: Short and sweet. You’ll never quite know what to expect with this one.

Favourite New Author?

Stephen King… yes. I know, I am the last on the very large bandwagon. So much horror, so much weird fiction.

Newest Fictional Crush?

Saying hello to a girl crush: Daisy Jones from Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She is so screwed up in so many ways but powerful, resilient and kickass at the same time.

Newest Favourite Character?

An odd one coming your way…. Annie Wilkes from Misery by Stephen King. Is it any surprise that I’m choosing a villain? Probably not LOL. I mean don’t you sometimes want to kidnap your favourite writer and force them to rewrite a book so they don’t kill your favourite character? Yeah me too…

Book That Made You Cry?

Now, I’m not a crier but I felt all the feels with Michelle Obama’s Becoming. She is a lawyer, mother, political advocate and can now add author to the list. This book was written so beautifully she could be a best seller even without being the famous ‘Michelle Obama’. I would die for another piece of her writing. So well done.

Book That Made You Happy?

Colourless Tsukuru Tazak by Haruki Murakami: ALL the nostalgia from my time living in Tokyo. Also beautiful writing, a new author I would love to read more of.

Favourite Book To Screen Adaptation You Saw This Year?

The Handmaid’s Tale

Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year?

Favourite and hardest review to write this year…. Swipe Right for Murder by Derek Milman! I wanted to spoil and gush the entire review so it was so hard to keep it spoiler free! However, such an amazing opportunity to interview the author himself! So thankful to Jimmy Patterson books, the Nerd Daily and Derek himself for a great book, review, and experience!

Most Beautiful Book You Bought So Far This Year?

UK edition of Skyward by Brandon Sanderson! This book looks like literal magic… hopefully it lives up to the hype of such a talked about fantasy author.

What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year?

• The Dark Half by Stephen King
• The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
• Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
• Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
• Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Holly’s Reads: Mid-2019 Book Freak Out Tag appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below which one you are most excited for!

The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

New Oldbury, 1821 In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia, and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline. All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end…

A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne Fowler
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family in as they rule Gilded-Age New York, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded Long Island mansion of her new fiancé Max Winter—a wealthy politician and recent widower—and a life of luxury she’s never known. But all is not as it appears at the Asherley estate. The house is steeped in the memory of Max’s beautiful first wife Rebekah, who haunts the young woman’s imagination and feeds her uncertainties, while his very alive teenage daughter Dani makes her life a living hell.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The much-anticipated new novel from the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Killing Commendatore is an epic tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art–as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby–and a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A captivating novel following the exploits of Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, the forgotten and rebellious daughter of one of America’s greatest political dynasties.

House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the New York Times bestselling author of The House at Tyneford, an epic family saga about a headstrong Austrian heiress who will be forced to choose between the family she’s made and the family that made her at the outbreak of World War I.

The Reckoning by John Grisham
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Pete Banning was Clanton’s favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbour, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946. he rose early, drove into town, walked into the Church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn’t shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete’s only statement about it—to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton—was “I have nothing to say.” And so the murder of the esteemed Reverend Bell became the most mysterious and unforgettable crime Ford County had ever known.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In the stories of Adjei-Brenyah’s debut, an amusement park lets players enter augmented reality to hunt terrorists or shoot intruders played by minority actors, a school shooting results in both the victim and gunman stuck in a shared purgatory, and an author sells his soul to a many-tongued god.

You Were Always Mine by Nicole Baart
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A harrowing story of tenacious love and heartbreaking betrayal, You Were Always Mine is about the wars we wage to keep the ones we love close, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Jodi Picoult.

What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

When a mutilated body is found hanging in a seedy motel in Philadelphia, forensics specialist Liam Dwyer assumes the crime scene will be business as usual. Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he’d had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there’s a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder.

We Were Mothers by Katie Sise
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A scandalous revelation is about to devastate a picturesque town where the houses are immaculate and the neighborhoods are tightly knit. Devoted mother Cora O’Connell has found the journal of her friend Laurel’s daughter—a beautiful college student who lives next door—revealing an illicit encounter. Hours later, Laurel makes a shattering discovery of her own: her daughter has vanished without a trace. Over the course of one weekend, the crises of two close families are about to trigger a chain reaction that will expose a far more disturbing web of secrets. Now everything is at stake as they’re forced to confront the lies they have told in order to survive.

Winter In Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Irene Steele’s idyllic life-house, husband, family is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white sand beaches of St. John’s.

A Cloud In The Shape of A Girl by Jean Thompson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl we see these women and their trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks; marital disappointments and infidelities; familial dysfunction; mortality. Spanning from World War II to the present, Thompson reveals a matrilineal love story that is so perfectly grounded in our time—a story of three women regressing, stalling, and yes, evolving, over decades. One of the burning questions she asks is: by serving her family, is a woman destined to repeat the mistakes of previous generations, or can she transcend the expectations of a place, and a time? Can she truly be free?

Little by Edward Carey
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud.  In the tradition of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Edward Carey’s Little is a darkly endearing cavalcade of a novel–a story of art, class, determination, and how we hold on to what we love.

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the New York Times bestselling co-author of It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale comes a fast-paced thriller about a truck driver searching across America for the wife she had long assumed to be dead.

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Rain Watcher is a powerful family drama set in Paris as the Malegarde family gathers to celebrate the father’s 70th birthday. Their hidden fears and secrets are slowly unraveled as the City of Light undergoes a stunning natural disaster. Seen through the eyes of charismatic photographer Linden Malegarde, the youngest son, all members of the family will have to fight to keep their unity against tragic circumstances.

Check out what else is coming out this month on our Goodreads list!

What book are you most excited for? Tell us in the comments below!

The post October Book Releases: Fiction appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Will you be adding any of these new releases to your TBR? Let us know in the comments below!

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas | May 2 | Goodreads
In the thrilling third novel in the A Court of Thorns & Roses series, Feyre returns to the Spring Court determined to gather information on Tamlin’s manoeuvrings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit and one slip may spell doom not just for her, but her world as well.

Hadriana In All My Dreams by René Depestre | May 2 | Goodreads
Hadriana, a young French woman, is about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family, but on the morning of the wedding, she drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. After being buried by the town, she is revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend.

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn | May 2 | Goodreads
In England 1815, two travellers from the future arrive in a field, dishevelled and weighed down with hidden money. Rachel and Liam aren’t the first team of time travellers, but their mission is the most audacious yet: meet, befriend, and steal from Jane Austen and obtain an unpublished novel. On their mission, the two face struggles as Rachel fights to reconcile her true self with the constrictions of 19th century society and with their portal home closing, they struggle to leave history as they found it…however heartbreaking that proves.

White Fur by Jardine Libaire | May 30 | Goodreads
Set in the 1980s, Elise Perez meets Jamey Hyde and the attraction is instant. Although they are next-door neighbors, they come from different worlds. Elise grew up in a housing project without a father and didn’t complete high school, whereas Jamey is a junior at Yale and an heir to a private investment bank fortune. The two soon move to Manhattan in hopes of forging a life together until Jamey’s family intervenes and they are soon fighting not just for their love, but also for their lives.

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare | May 23 | Goodreads
Emma Carstairs has avenged her parents and she thought she’d be at peace, but she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for Julian and her desire to protect him from the consequences it bears, she begins dating his brother Mark. Meanwhile, the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, the group must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear.

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami | May 9 | Goodreads
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

The Empire’s Ghost by Isabelle Steiger | May 16 | Goodreads
The empire of Elesthene once spanned a continent, but its rise heralded the death of magic and tore itself apart. Now a new dictator, Imperator Elgar, rises to seize power and recreate the lost empire anew. With each kingdom facing their own issue, everything seems aligned in Elgar’s favour except a group finds an unexpected opportunity to alter the balance of power in the war. Their actions and those of the remaining royals, they may uncover not just a way to defeat Elgar, but also a deeper truth about their world’s lost history.

House of Names by Colm Tóibín | May 18 | Goodreads
A powerful retelling of a classic Greek tragedy of a family at war with itself. The tale sees Agamemnon ordering the sacrifice of his daughter and after her death, he leads his army into battle where he is rewarded with glorious victory. Three years on, he returns home and finds his murderous action has set the entire family on a path of intimate violence.

Among The Lesser Gods by Margo Catts | May 9 | Goodreads
Elena Alvarez is living a cursed life. From the deadly fire she accidentally set as a child, to her mother’s abandonment, and now to an unwanted pregnancy, she knows small actions can have terrible consequences. She is soon confronted by reflections of her own troubles wherever she turns. Bit by bit, Elena begins to question her understanding of cause and effect, reexamining the tragedies she’s held on to and the wounds she’s refused to let heal.

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins | May 2 | Goodreads
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town and earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl who now finds herself in the care of her mother’s sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she’d never return.

No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal | May 2 | Goodreads
Harit, a lonely Indian immigrant in his midforties lives with his mother and in a misguided attempt to keep both himself and his mother sane after the death of his sister, he takes to dressing up in a sari every night to pass himself off as his sister. Meanwhile, Ranjana, also an Indian immigrant in her midforties, has just seen her only child, Prashant, off to college. Worried that her husband has begun an affair, she seeks solace by writing paranormal romances in secret. Ranjana & Harit’s paths soon cross and they begin a strange yet necessary friendship.

Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane | May 9 | Goodreads
Rachel Childs, a former journalist who, after an on-air mental breakdown, now lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray, including her marriage. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths.

The post May Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The Book Cook Look Club is a small Australian based book club combining three much-loved activities: reading, cooking and films. Declan, a member of the club, will be recapping his experience each month right here on The Nerd Daily!

BOOK | One person selects a book for everyone to read over the next month.
COOK | The book selector hosts a dinner party with a themed meal related to the book.
LOOK | We compare the film adaptation to its source material.

The book for February was chosen by Cassie – probably one of the fastest readers I know. So naturally, she selected a book which most of the group struggled to get through in time: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Since there is no film adaptation for this book, we unfortunately had to skip this part of the discussion.

At around 600 pages long, it’s not an easy read for those who like to take books slowly and if I’m being completely honest, I was already absorbed in another one of Murakami’s books, 1Q84. Because of this, I reasoned that if I was able to turn the conversation into a comparison of the two then it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t completely commit to the set book.

DINNER
The night began with Cassie serving up a gorgeous meal of pork miso ramen soup, a traditional Japanese dish. As we tucked into dinner, Cassie launched us into an explanation of why she chose the book.

She started off with her undying love for Murakami’s writing, especially the recounts of World War II from Japan’s perspective decades after it ended; a perspective that Western audiences don’t hear about too often. She was also fascinated by Murakami’s knack for finding the meaning in routine activities.

Alec and Scott were less forgiving of this, blaming it for being the reason they lost interest in the book. For them, the plot was slow and confusing. To be fair, I don’t think either of them made it very far into the book before giving up.

During this back-and-forth, I was sitting quietly on the sidelines waiting to turn the conversation from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to Murakami’s writing style in general. And so from my bag, I withdrew 1Q84.

“Routine is what defines a lot of Murakami’s characters, but 1Q84 uses this to suggest that some strange mix of existentialism and fatalism exists. In this book some special few people can transcend the human experience, develop strange powers, and perceive hidden secrets of life. Meanwhile, everyone else is just a background character with no excitement or variation in their lives,” I said, trying to sound smart.

“It would appear that in instances such as this, some people are moving towards a fixed destiny, while others live day-to-day with no real purpose.”

DESSERT
This segue into surrealism and postmodernism arrived just in time for dessert – coffee jelly with cream (yes, this is apparently traditionally Japanese, to my surprise and ignorance). Some divisive opinions rose to the surface at this point.

With Alec arguing against surrealism’s lack of logical answers, and Scott hating on postmodernism’s ambiguity, they dominated the conversation for a little while. Alec revealed to us the deep frustration he feels when books don’t give clear-cut answers to the questions they throw at the reader.

Cassie and I managed to regain some ground in defence of contemporary literature. We argued that in reality, there are big questions in our life that we never figure out the answers to, and others where the only answers are imperfect. Postmodern literature aims to reflect this.

In Murakami’s 1Q84, do we ever find out who the Little People really are? Or the meaning of the two moons in the sky? Or what an air chrysalis really is? No, the book doesn’t give us these answers. It gives us half-answers, or tiny hints dropped every now and then. This might frustrate the Alec’s of the world, but if you don’t mind having a lot of questions left open-ended for you to think about in your own time, then I would certainly recommend adding Murakami to your reading list.

Do you enjoy reading works by Murakami? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Book Cook Look Club: Haruki Murakami appeared first on The Nerd Daily.