Yoko Ogawa (the housekeeper and the professor is her most famous one but has a dozen more), Hiromi Kawakami (start with Strange weather and Nakano Thrift shop), Banana Yoshimoto is mentioned above already. Minae Mizumura (a Real novel or The inheritance from mother), Ryu Murakami (audition, piercing). of course Haruki Murakami in the surreal side: wind-up bird chronicle,hard boiled wonderland or recent 1Q84 (except for his Norwegian wood, his most accessible title). Tags along with Kobo Abe (Woman in the dunes is exceptional). Crime thrillers with Natsuo Kirino (Out, or Grotesque, for example) & Keigo Higashino (Suspect X). Fuminori Nakamura ia more Noir like Seicho Sakamoto. On the classic side, Yukio Mishima is a must, tackle The golden Pavillion or the Tetralogy of the sea of fertility’ (starts with Spring snow) Kenzaburo Oe and Junichiro Tanizaki have many good ones. Pillow book and Tale of Genji are 1000 year old novels with great historical and literature value but heavier to get into, more analytical.
I forgot also Natsume Soseki (Kokoro, I’m a cat…). More come to mind like Kenji Miyazawa (the milky way railway influences slightly Star wars: orphan kid with robots crosses the galaxy with the help of an undercover princess. A children’s classic). Akiyuki Nosaka and his Grave if the fireflies is the source of the Ghibli movie. Prepare to cry. More on Atomic effects with Masuji Ibuse and Black rain. Here we spill into manga graphic novels but check Barefoot Gen too for WWII survival.
Haruki Murakami; I’ve read “Norwegian Wood” and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles” although I feel “Wind-Up Bird” should come with a warning label (really violent, graphic torture scene during a flashback – the only book that’s caused me to feel physically ill while reading)
I was obsessed with Japanese literature in high school. It’s really interesting and sometimes very different than any type of western or european literature. I recommend: Yukio Mishima – I loved Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Forbidden Colors, Sun and Steel and the Sea of Fertility series; Yasunari Kawabata – Beauty and Sadness; Haruki Murakami – My favourites are Kafka on the Shore, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Norwegian Wood, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, his 2 short story collections – The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. 🙂
I loved Shion Miura’s The Great Passage, about creating a new Japanese dictionary, which he describes as “a boat to carry us across the sea of words.” And it’s so much more!
THe Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
I love Banana Yoshimoto, it’s been many years since I read it but Kitchen was wonderful.
Thanks a lot
Yoko Ogawa (the housekeeper and the professor is her most famous one but has a dozen more), Hiromi Kawakami (start with Strange weather and Nakano Thrift shop), Banana Yoshimoto is mentioned above already. Minae Mizumura (a Real novel or The inheritance from mother), Ryu Murakami (audition, piercing). of course Haruki Murakami in the surreal side: wind-up bird chronicle,hard boiled wonderland or recent 1Q84 (except for his Norwegian wood, his most accessible title). Tags along with Kobo Abe (Woman in the dunes is exceptional). Crime thrillers with Natsuo Kirino (Out, or Grotesque, for example) & Keigo Higashino (Suspect X). Fuminori Nakamura ia more Noir like Seicho Sakamoto. On the classic side, Yukio Mishima is a must, tackle The golden Pavillion or the Tetralogy of the sea of fertility’ (starts with Spring snow) Kenzaburo Oe and Junichiro Tanizaki have many good ones. Pillow book and Tale of Genji are 1000 year old novels with great historical and literature value but heavier to get into, more analytical.
Thanks a lot.
I forgot also Natsume Soseki (Kokoro, I’m a cat…). More come to mind like Kenji Miyazawa (the milky way railway influences slightly Star wars: orphan kid with robots crosses the galaxy with the help of an undercover princess. A children’s classic). Akiyuki Nosaka and his Grave if the fireflies is the source of the Ghibli movie. Prepare to cry. More on Atomic effects with Masuji Ibuse and Black rain. Here we spill into manga graphic novels but check Barefoot Gen too for WWII survival.
Haruki Murakami; I’ve read “Norwegian Wood” and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles” although I feel “Wind-Up Bird” should come with a warning label (really violent, graphic torture scene during a flashback – the only book that’s caused me to feel physically ill while reading)
Banana Yoshimoto
Rainbirds, Goodbye Vitamin.
Haruki Murakami- Kafka on the shore
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162332.The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14028.Snow_Country
I love Snow Country. It feels so peaceful reading it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25241930-the-gun
I forgot Kawabata, of course. Thanks
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17810.In_the_Miso_Soup
You didn’t say the genre, so I just listed a bunch of random books that I have enjoyed 🙂
Thanks a lot. I am not really looking for a particular genre. I have just given myself a challenge to read a lot of books by Japanese authors.
Julie Otsuka
Buddha in the Attic
When the Emperor was Divine
Natsuo Kirino is my favorite Japanese author.
Another vote here
The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.
One of my all time favorites
SILENCE by Shushako Endo
‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Kafka on the Shore ‘. Both by Haruki Murakami
I was obsessed with Japanese literature in high school. It’s really interesting and sometimes very different than any type of western or european literature. I recommend: Yukio Mishima – I loved Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Forbidden Colors, Sun and Steel and the Sea of Fertility series; Yasunari Kawabata – Beauty and Sadness; Haruki Murakami – My favourites are Kafka on the Shore, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Norwegian Wood, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, his 2 short story collections – The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. 🙂
1Q84
Kafka on the shore
Wind-up bird chronicle
All by Haruki Murakami. His books are Mystical and sophisticated.
If you like mysteries,
Keigo Higashino’s works are just great.
My fav is “The Devotion of Suspect X”
It’s also the most popular book of his.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8686068-the-devotion-of-suspect-x?ac=1&from_search=true
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Earrings
This girl won Akutagawa Prize being a teen-ager. I liked it.
@Haruki
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
I loved Shion Miura’s The Great Passage, about creating a new Japanese dictionary, which he describes as “a boat to carry us across the sea of words.” And it’s so much more!
1q84 by haruki murakami
“The Tokaido Road” is by Lucia St. Clair Robson, but it is a novel of feudal Japan.??