"The Paper Door and Other Stories" showcases the concise, delicate art of this writer who is often called "the god of the Japanese short story." Doyen of Japanese letters Donald Keene ranks some of Shiga's stories "among the most brilliant achievements in this genre by any twentieth-century Japanese writer." Shiga's unique style is concise and simple, with no unnecessary words. With the subtlest of gestures, he evokes the fullness of experience.Lane Dunlop's masterly translation of seventeen of Shiga's finest stories has provided English readers their first overview of the author's work. Now back in print, the book is augmented by Donald Keene's new preface contextualizing Shiga's awesome literary gifts. Dunlop has chosen stories that aptly represent Shiga's range and virtuosity. With selections spanning forty years, from the fable-like "The Little Girl and the Rapeseed Flower" to the psychologically complex "A Gray Moon," this collection delineates the development of Shiga's rare genius.

    

    Here is an alive, contemporary Zen master at work --and as the meaning of Sosan's teachings are unraveled, so are the habitualpatterns and prejudices of the reader's mind. Furthermore, Osho's work isso subtle and delicate, the surgery is performed almost before you know it.As you turn the last page, you may suddenly realize that you'll never againbe quite so captivated by your own inner chatter -- and without any effortyou've taken the first, vital step towards meditation.Review from sannyas dot org:"If I were to save only two books from the whole world of the mystics, one would be Sosan's Hsin Hsin Ming," Osho says. "It contains the quintessence of Zen, the path of awareness and meditation...the very soul of Zen." Himself a master of both words and silence, Osho builds a bridge between the modern, chattering mind and the infinite no-mind of Sosan through these Zen sutras - the only words uttered by Sosan, the 6th-century Chinese mystic and third Chinese patriarch.SubjectZen and Zen MastersTranslated fromNotesOriginal book title "Neither This Nor That".Time Period of Osho's original Discourses/Talks/Lettersfrom Oct 21, 1974 to Oct 30, 1974Number of Discourses/Chapters10

    These are some of the things we think about when we think about Japan. This small island nation looms large in the popular imagination, in often contradictory ways: as the epitome of refinement and tradition, and as an embodiment of a shiny, soulless future. What is Japan to those who really know it? This issue includes translated work from the most exciting Japanese writers today, alongside work in English. There will be contributions from the Man Asia-shortlisted Hiromi Kawakami, the Booker-shortlisted Ruth Ozeki, David Mitchell, David Peace, Richard Lloyd Parry and more.

    When documentarian Jane Takagi-Little finally lands a job producing a Japanese television show that just happens to be sponsored by an American meat-exporting business, she uncovers some unsavory truths about love, fertility, and a dangerous hormone called DES. Soon she will also cross paths with Akiko Ueno, a beleaguered Japanese housewife struggling to escape her overbearing husband. Hailed by USA Today as “rare and provocative” and awarded the Kirayama Prize for Literature of the Pacific Rim, My Year of Meats is a modern-day take on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle for fans of Michael Pollan, Margaret Atwood, and Barbara Kingsolver.

    It recounts a series of stories from the life of his patient Eiji Ijichi, a former Yakuza boss, as told in the last months of his life.The true and fascinating story of one of the last traditional gang bosses in Japan.

    Bleak and oozing existential dread, The Thief is simply unforgettable. The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections...But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It’s an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.

    Julie Otsuka’s long-awaited follow-up to When the Emperor Was Divine is a tour de force of economy and precision, a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” nearly a century ago.In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the picture brides’ extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.

    So when some of the beasts mysteriously die, Elin's mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath she manages to send her daughter to safety.Alone, far from home, Elin soon discovers that she can talk to both the terrifying water serpents and the majestic flying beasts that guard her queen. This skill gives her great powers, but it also involves her in deadly plots that could cost her life. Can she save herself and prevent her beloved beasts from being used as tools of war? Or is there no way of escaping the terrible battles to come?

    Some are "Momotaro, "The Son of a Peach", "The Jellyfish and the Monkey", "The Mirror of Matsuyama", "The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child", "The Stones of Five Colors and the Empress Jokwa."

    Buck's The Hidden Flower centers on the relationship between a Japanese student and an American soldier stationed in post-war Japan. The Japanese student's father worked in the United States as a doctor, but had to flee to Kyoto to avoid imprisonment in an internment camp. The American soldier has inherited his family's estate in Virginia, where interracial marriage is forbidden. Against such forces, and without the help of their families, how can the love between the young pair — and the future of their child — flourish? The Hidden Flower is an emotionally astute and moving exploration of a taboo love across cultures.

    Ibuse began serializing Black Rain in the magazine Shincho in January 1965. The novel is based on historical records of the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

    The young heroine, Otama, is forced by poverty to become a moneylender's mistress. Her dawning consciousness of her predicament brings the novel to a touching climax.

    Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge. Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions explores the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.

    In the remote village of Izumi five high school friends died within the space of a fortnight.The circumstances were never explained. Four years later a British paranormal researcher travels to Izumi in an attempt to unravel the mystery. There he encounters much more than culture shock. He encounters the dark side of Japanese culture – the side they don't talk about in guidebooks. He encounters Reiko.