Written by: Intan Paramaditha | Translated by Stephen J Epstein Most of us know that every country and culture has its folk tales and fairy tales, and most of us know that these often horrific tales of punishment, death, revenge, and tragedy have been muted and twisted into happy stories by Disney, and in Japan’s recent children’s anime Yokai Watch. But how can we...
Here’s our next instalment of ‘Meet the Translator‘, where we aim to talk to translators from around the world. We’re catching up with Louise Heal Kawai, a Japanese to English literary translator. Louise comes from Manchester, UK and is based in Yokohama, Japan. Her most recently translated work is the gripping Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama. Her...
‘All roads used to lead to Rome. Today, they lead to Beijing.’ The subject of history is one that concerns politics, economics, and philosophy. Lessons from the past teach us how to proceed into the future. And yet, for so long, books on history have been simply that. Recently, however, a trend has emerged amongst historians: experts in world events of the past have...
Written by Kang Kyeong-ae | Translated by Anton Hur Even if The Underground Village were to be underwhelming, it is worth attention for being perhaps the only collection of stories to come out of Japanese-occupied Manchuria (written by a lower-class female Korean communist born in what is now North Korea) that you’ll ever read. Fortunately, thanks in no small part to...
Meet Anton Hur One of the most important and celebrated works of literature to come out of Korea in 2018 was Kyung-sook Shin’s The Court Dancer, a powerful work of historical literature based on a true story. And without the deft translation skills of Anton Hur, it would never have reached the English-speaking world. Following the book’s success, Hur has...
Written by Hwang Sok-yong | Translated by: Sora Kim-Russell Have you ever listened to Big Yellow Taxi? I like the Counting Crows version. Hwang Sok-yong is arguably Korea’s most prestigious and well-respected living author; his most recently translated works – Familiar Things and Princess Bari – have garnered themselves heaps of praise across the English-speaking...
Written by: Hye-Young Pyun | Translated by: Sora Kim-Russell Millennials are often accused of destroying a lot of things, but they have also been attributed to the resurgence of so much lost art, such as vinyl records and pixel-art video games. In literature, one of the greatest writers to receive a second life is Franz Kafka. More and more frequently we are seeing...
Written by Yukiko Motoya | Translated by Asa Yoneda ‘Tomoko had married him of her own free will. Some of her friends had advised her to reconsider, but most people didn’t even seem to notice that he was straw.’ Two months ago I had already decided on my favourite novel, and novelist, of 2018: Convenience Store Woman and its author Sayaka Murata. I loved this book...
Japan Story by Christopher Harding For any curious lover of history, searching for an enlightening but comprehensive history of Japan, there are many places to look. Just last year, Jonathan Clements published his excellent A Brief History of Japan, which does exactly as it says on the tin. Another book to capture the hearts of many a Japanophile is David Pilling’s...
Here is the second of two articles summarising and reviewing the stories found in the Keshiki series, brought to you by Strangers Press. Click here if you missed part one. What is the Keshiki Series? Eight chapbooks, each containing a tale (or tales) of around thirty or forty pages, all by Japanese authors of varying successes that you may not have heard of. If you...
