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Reading lists

The best Japanese fiction in translation

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The best books to hunker down with this autumn

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon

THE UNFORGETTABLE MILLION-COPY JAPANESE BESTSELLER BY THE AUTHOR OF LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR 
 
'Recalls early Murakami. An enchanting read' Financial Times 
____________ 
 
A suspenseful magical realism novel about a mysterious teenage “go-between” who arranges meetings between the living and the dead, from multimillion-copy Japanese bestselling author Mizuki Tsujimura. 
 
I bring together the living and the departed. I am the go-between. 
 
When a young woman from Tokyo contacts the go-between to request a meeting with a deceased TV star who once helped her, she doesn’t expect a teenage boy to show up. Dressed in a designer duffel coat and carrying a tattered notebook, Ayumi Shibuya offers an extraordinary service: he reunites the living with their dearly departed. 
 
Meeting his clients at a luxury hotel, Ayumi lays down the ground rules: each reunion is a one-time arrangement that the dead can refuse, the service is entirely free, and the meeting must take place during a full moon. 
 
As Ayumi arranges these reunions, we encounter a resentful eldest son who wants to ask his mother to unearth the deeds to a plot of land, a teenage girl who blames herself for her best friend’s death, and a weary businessman seeking answers about his fiancée’s disappearance days after he proposed. 
 
Already a multimillion-copy bestseller in Japan, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon is storytelling at its finest. Captivating, cosy, and compulsively readable, this is an unforgettable page-turner in which the living and the dead are given one last chance for closure. 
 
Now read HOW TO HOLD SOMEONE IN YOUR HEART, the sequel to LOST SOULS MEET UNDER A FULL MOON 
 
First published in Japan under the title TSUNAGU or GO-BETWEEN 
 
Readers are obsessed: 
'Every word resonated in my heart' ***** Reader review' 
'Perfect for anyone who loves to think deeply about what they have just read' ***** Reader review 
'Makes you ponder about death and about life' ***** Reader review

A beautifully written novel about hope and kindness, unfashionable perhaps in its simple positive message and all the better for it

Displaying a matter-of-fact approach to the fantastical that recalls early Haruki Murakami, Tsujimura’s novel is an enchanting read

Is there anyone from the afterlife you wish to see? 
 
So asks the smart young man, Ayumi, to his clients, who have come to him for a reunion with the person who once changed their life. 
 
Ayumi's clients must follow strict rules: the deceased cannot have been summoned by anyone else, they may refuse, and they must meed under a full moon. 
 
Anxious Hirase asks to see the celebrity who showed her kindness at a critical moment. 
 
An arrogant man wants clarity about the family home from his beloved mother. 
 
After a fatal accident, a schoolgirl has a question for her former best friend. 
 
A salaryman wants to ask the only woman he ever loved what caused her to run away. 
 
With each reunion, tantalizing clues are scattered for readers to piece together the emotional truth in this mesmeric and unputdownable tale of kindness, compassion and connection. 
 
 Who would you like to see? 
 
£14.99

Mizuki Tsujimura (Author) 
MIZUKI TSUJIMURA is the much-loved author of million-copy-bestselling mystery and puzzlebox novels. Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon explores our relationship with the memories of deceased loved ones and what gives our lives meaning. It was made into a high-budget Japanese-language film and won a newcomer award. Its sequel, How to Hold Someone in Your Heart, was also a huge bestseller, cementing the appeal of Tsujimura’s unique combination of emotion, mystery and magic. She is the author of the groundbreaking novel Lonely Castle in the Mirror, which was also adapted for anime and manga and which combines real-world fantasy with important themes of mental health and friendship. Tsujimura has won many awards, including the Japan Booksellers' Award and the Naoki Prize, and is published worldwide. English-language editions of many of her works, including True Mothers and Arrogance and Virtue (now a major Japanese-language) are due to be published soon. 
 
Yuki Tejima (Translator) 
Yuki Tejima is the translator of Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon and How to Hold Someone in Your Heart, Kumi Kimura’s Someone to Watch Over You, and the sequel to Tetsuko Kuroyanagi’s bestselling memoir, Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window 2. She moved from the US to Tokyo, where she now lives.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

A surge of Japanese women are redefining their nation's literature

Strange and beautiful. Imagine the offspring of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle with The Virgin Suicides

A moving, reflective and surprising novel... anyone who has ever struggled with feeling isolated, had difficulties at school, or had mental health struggles, will find this novel to be a cleansing balm.

Neat twists and a genuinely affecting denouement. A story of empathy, collaboration and sharing truths,  this is 'a modern, all-ages fairy tale' that should appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Studio Ghibli animations

There's a warmth to her writing, and Tsujimura has a mature ability to allow the story to speak for itself without narrative

An original and tender blend of social commentary and magical realism

For fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, fairy tale and magic are weaved together in sparse language that belies a flooring emotional punch. 
 
'Strange and beautiful. Imagine the offspring of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle with The Virgin Suicides' GUARDIAN 
'Genuinely affecting. A story of empathy, collaboration and sharing truths' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
Translated by Philip Gabriel, a translator of Murakami 
_______________________________ 
 
Would you share your deepest secrets to save a friend? 
 
In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining. 
 
At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch: if they don't leave the castle by five o'clock, they will be punished. 
 
As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved. 
 
Tender, playful, gripping, LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR is a mesmerizing tale about the importance of reaching out, confronting anxiety and embracing human connection. 
 
 
Readers love LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR: 
 
***** 'This book has become one of my favourite Japanese reads of all time . . . A magical heartfelt read that will stay with you' 
***** 'Unexpected, beautiful and heart-breaking . . . this is a work of fiction which reaches into the heart of a modern problem and has valuable insight' 
***** 'Rich and vivid.This book is a symbol that 'there is always hope'

Mizuki Tsujimura

Yuki Tejima

Delving into themes of grief, closure and acceptance, this poignant and heartfelt meditation from the bestselling Japanese author is simply magical

Book Two in the LOST SOULS series of a young man with special powers to connect the living with the afterlife. For fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD and LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR 
____ 
 
The much-anticipated follow-up novel to Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon picks up seven years later with go-between Ayumi, a young man caught between the demands of everyday life and his extraordinary gift: reuniting the living with the dead. 
 
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain. Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten 16th-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love. 
 
Luminous, magical, and deeply heartwarming, How to Hold Someone in Your Heart is an unforgettable novel from bestselling storyteller Mizuki Tsujimura and a profound meditation on living without regret, embracing the unexpected, and cherishing the fleeting moments we’re given. 
 
Readers adore it: 
‘Warms your heart’ ***** 
‘I can’t express how good this is. Made me feel the weight of human life’ ***** 
‘The relationship with the dead, the messengers, the clients, and the existence of fate – it all felt so intimate to me’ ***** 
'As good as the first book'*****

Mizuki Tsujimura

Praise for How to Hold Someone in your Heart

Delving into themes of grief, closure and acceptance, this poignant and heartfelt meditation from the bestselling Japanese author is simply magical

Books by Mizuki Tsujimura

Articles featuring Mizuki Tsujimura

The best Japanese fiction in translation

The best books to hunker down with this autumn

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