It's Valentine's Day--and while Domeki is showered with chocolates and cards from girls, Watanuki receives none. To make matters worse, he must also do the usual chores for Yûko, which includes making chocolate cake for her and Mokona, as well as the treats his boss wants to give away as gifts. But when Watanuki discovers he has a shy and secret admirer who is not quite human, he finds that chocolates can be more than just sweets.

Then, after seeing identical twin sisters pass by in the street, Yûko makes a curious remark: that there are chains that only humans can use to bind others. Watanuki meets the sisters and senses that the relationship between them is not what it seems. . . .

xxxHOLiC crosses over with Tsubasa, also by CLAMP. Don't miss it!

Includes chapters 23-28.

The Prettiest Boy in School... Isn't a Boy!

Japanese-American track-and-field star Mizuki has transferred to a high school in Japan... but not just any school! To be close to her idol, high jumper Izumi Sano, she's going to an all-guys' high school... and disguising herself as a boy!

As fate would have it, they're more than classmates... they're roommates! Now, Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates—and the school nurse—must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation...

Plus a bonus story: The Cage of Summer!

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream--defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya!

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream--defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya.

Watanuki Kimihiro is haunted by visions of ghosts and spirits. Seemingly by chance, he encounters a mysterious witch named Yuuko, who claims she can help. In desperation, he accepts, but realizes that he's just been tricked into working for Yuuko in order to pay off the cost of her services. Soon he's employed in her little shop—a job which turns out to be nothing like his previous work experience.

Most of Yuuko's customers live in Japan, but Yuuko and Watanuki are about to have some unusual visitors named Sakura and Syaoran from a land called Clow. xxxHolic volume one crosses over with Tsubasa volume one. Don't miss it!

Includes special extras after the story. Includes chapters 1-8.

Ring is a chillingly told horror story that begins with a mysterious videotape warning that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.

Asakawa, a dedicated journalist, becomes intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation takes him from a bustling metropolitan Tokyo, filled with modern society's fears, to rural Japan—a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic—haunted by the past.

Asakawa's attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late—for everyone—assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. This novel is a masterfully suspenseful mystery and a post-modern trip.

A family with an ancient curse... And the girl who will change their lives forever...

Ever since Tohru Honda discovered the Zodiac secret of the Sohma clan, her eyes have opened to a world of magic and wonder. But with such a great secret comes great responsibility.

When her best friends Hana-chan and Uo-chan come to the Sohma home for a sleepover, Tohru has her work cut out for her keeping the "Cat" in the bag and the "Dog" on a leash.

Grass for His Pillow is the second book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. We return to the medieval Japan of Hearn's creation—a land of harsh beauty and deceptive appearances.

In a complex social hierarchy, amid dissembling clans and fractured allegiances, there is no place for passionate young love. The orphan Takeo has been condemned to work as an assassin—an enforced occupation that his father sacrificed his own life to escape.

Meanwhile, Takeo’s beloved Shirakawa Kaede, heir to the Murayama and alone in the world, must find a way to unify the domain she has inherited, as she fights off the advances of would-be suitors and hopes against fading hope that Takeo will return to her.

This tale of love and conflict in the ancient Oriental lands of the Otori, amidst a time of violent war, famine, and treacherous alliances, will captivate readers with its epic scope and vivid detail.

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But, Frank's behavior is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, One Piece! As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber—at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, Luffy sets off in search of the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world.

Now, with the help of a motley collection of pirate wannabes, Luffy is setting off in search of the legendary treasure. The enchanted Gum-Gum Fruit has given Luffy the power to stretch like rubber—and his new crewmate, the infamous pirate hunter Roronoa Zolo, strikes fear into the hearts of other buccaneers! But what chance does one rubber guy stand against Nami, a thief so tough she specializes in robbing pirates, or Captain Buggy, a fiendish pirate lord whose weird, clownish appearance conceals even weirder powers?

It's pirate vs. pirate in the second swashbuckling volume of One Piece.

The Great Fire is a sweeping story of men and women struggling to reclaim their lives in the aftermath of world conflict. This is Shirley Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War.

In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women, still young but veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again. Some will fulfill their destinies, others will falter. At the center of the story, Aldred Leith, a brave and brilliant soldier, finds that survival and worldly achievement are not enough. Helen Driscoll, a young girl living in occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, falls in love, and in the process discovers herself.

In the looming shadow of world enmities resumed, and of Asia's coming centrality in world affairs, a man and a woman seek to recover self-reliance, balance, and tenderness, struggling to reclaim their humanity.

Almost Transparent Blue is a brutal tale of lost youth in a Japanese port town close to an American military base. Murakami's image-intensive narrative paints a portrait of a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The novel is all but plotless, but the raw and often violent prose takes us on a rollercoaster ride through reality and hallucination, highs and lows, in which the characters and their experiences come vividly to life. Trapped in passivity, they gain neither passion nor pleasure from their adventures. Yet out of the alienation, boredom and underlying rage and grief emerges a strangely quiet and almost equally shocking beauty.

Ryu Murakami's first novel, Almost Transparent Blue won the coveted Akutagawa literary prize and became an instant bestseller. Representing a sharp and conscious turning away from the introspective trend of postwar Japanese literature, it polarized critics and public alike and soon attracted international attention as an alternative view of modern Japan.

Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world.

The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident—a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him. His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self—a self that is capable of anything.

A remorseless meditation on nature, identity, and the social contract, The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.

Hagakure ("In the Shadow of Leaves") is a manual for the samurai classes consisting of a series of short anecdotes and reflections that give both insight and instruction in the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of Bushido—the Way of the Warrior.

It is not a book of philosophy as most would understand the word; rather, it is a collection of thoughts and sayings recorded over a period of seven years, covering a wide variety of subjects, often in no particular sequence. The work represents an attitude far removed from our modern pragmatism and materialism, and possesses an intuitive rather than rational appeal in its assertion that Bushido is a Way of Dying, and that only a samurai retainer prepared and willing to die at any moment can be totally true to his lord.

While Hagakure was for many years a secret text known only to the warrior vassals of the Hizen fief to which the author belonged, it later came to be recognized as a classic exposition of samurai thought and came to influence many subsequent generations. This translation offers 300 selections that constitute the core texts of the 1,300 present in the original.

A surreal coming-of-age tale that establishes Ryu Murakami as one of the most inventive young writers in the world today. Abandoned at birth in adjacent train station lockers, two troubled boys spend their youth in an orphanage and with foster parents on a semi-deserted island before finally setting off for the city to find and destroy the women who first rejected them. Both are drawn to an area of freaks and hustlers called Toxitown. One becomes a bisexual rock singer, star of this exotic demimonde, while the other, a pole vaulter, seeks his revenge in the company of his girlfriend, Anemone, a model who has converted her condominium into a tropical swamp for her pet crocodile.

Together and apart, their journey from a hot metal box to a stunning, savage climax is a brutal funhouse ride through the eerie landscape of late-twentieth-century Japan.

Written in the eleventh century, this portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world's first novel. The Tale of Genji is a very long romance, running to fifty-four chapters and describing the court life of Heian Japan, from the tenth century into the eleventh.

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream--defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a novel that delves into the complexities of love and human longing. The story revolves around Sumire, an aspiring writer with a unique fashion sense reminiscent of a Kerouac character, who finds herself in love with a woman seventeen years her senior, named Miu. Sumire's best friend, K, a primary school teacher, grapples with his own feelings for Sumire, which remain unspoken.

As Sumire confides in K about her life's big questions, such as the nature of sexual desire and whether to confess her feelings to Miu, K contemplates revealing his unrequited love. The narrative takes an unexpected turn when Miu, in a state of desperation, calls from a Greek island to report that Sumire has mysteriously disappeared. This event thrusts K back into Sumire's enigmatic world, leading to a search that is fraught with ominous visions and a haunting sense of absence.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a subtle and evocative exploration of the yearning that drives us to seek connection and the profound impact of love and loss on the human psyche.

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream--defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya!

Akira is beginning a new school year at Kaio Middle School. With his daunting reputation as the Toya Meijin's son, Akira finds he must prove himself to more than a few mean and jealous classmates. And with the help of upperclassman Yuri Hidaka, Akira finds the confidence to persevere in his hunt to beat Hikaru. Meanwhile, Hikaru is having a hard enough time just trying to find a third teammate to play in the Haze Middle School Go Club. A possible teammate arrives in the form of Yuki Mitani--but will he join their club or continue to swindle old timers for their pocket change?

When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, the unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime: the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect.

Over the next twenty years, we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case, which remains unsolved, to the point of obsession. Stark, intriguing, and stylish, Journey Under the Midnight Sun is an epic mystery by the bestselling Japanese author.

Set in the 1860s, Silk weaves a tale of Hervé Joncour, a French silkworm merchant, as he travels to Japan—a country closed to foreigners—to acquire silkworm eggs amidst an epidemic threatening France's silk trade. The journey is not only a commercial venture but also a personal odyssey, leading to an illicit and silent affair with a concubine who has "eyes that are not Oriental."

As Joncour makes his clandestine deals with a local baron, the passion between him and the concubine unfolds through subtle, clandestine messages across his visits. Alessandro Baricco's narrative, as smooth and lustrous as the silk in question, spins a story of love that is both enigmatic and intense, highlighting the complexities of connection and desire.

Memoirs of a Geisha transports readers to a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. Through the eyes of one of Japan's most celebrated geishas, we experience the struggle for dignity and identity in a time of war and transformation. Arthur Golden crafts a tale that is at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and utterly unforgettable.

Transported back to Japan's feudal era, high school student Kagome accidentally releases the feral half-demon dog boy Inu-Yasha from his imprisonment. He was imprisoned for stealing the Jewel of Four Souls.

Join them on an adventurous journey as they seek to reclaim the scattered shards of the Jewel and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. With each shard, the power to fulfill the greatest dreams or the darkest nightmares grows stronger!

Nobel Prize recipient Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country is widely considered to be the writer's masterpiece, a powerful tale of wasted love set amid the desolate beauty of western Japan.

At an isolated mountain hot spring, with snow blanketing every surface, Shimamura, a wealthy dilettante meets Komako, a lowly geisha. She gives herself to him fully and without remorse, despite knowing that their passion cannot last and that the affair can have only one outcome. In chronicling the course of this doomed romance, Kawabata has created a story for the ages, a stunning novel dense in implication and exalting in its sadness.

In Osaka, in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women strive to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. The Makioka Sisters, as told by Junichiro Tanizaki, is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century. It's a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family—and an entire society—sliding into the abyss of modernity.

Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances.

Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonists, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature, offering keen social insight and unabashed sensuality that distinguish Tanizaki as a master novelist.

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely.

Dance Dance Dance—a follow-up to A Wild Sheep Chase—is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through Murakami’s Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs. As Murakami’s nameless protagonist searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, he is plunged into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread. In this propulsive novel, featuring a shabby but oracular Sheep Man, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work today fuses together science fiction, the hardboiled thriller, and white-hot satire.

Countless tombstones stand in rows throughout a small community, forming a bizarre tableau. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?

Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master Junji Ito.

Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. It tells the story of Shinji, a young fisherman, and Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. Shinji is entranced at the sight of Hatsue in the twilight on the beach, and they fall in love.

When the villagers' gossip threatens to divide them, Shinji must risk his life to prove his worth.

In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima creates a haunting portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully. Mizoguchi, an ostracized stutterer, develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple. While an acolyte at the temple, he fixates on the structure’s aesthetic perfection and it becomes his one and only object of desire. But as Mizoguchi begins to perceive flaws in the temple, he determines that the only true path to beauty lies in an act of horrific violence. Based on a real incident that occurred in 1950, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion brilliantly portrays the passions and agonies of a young man in postwar Japan, bringing to the subject the erotic imagination and instinct for the dramatic moment that marked Mishima as one of the towering makers of modern fiction. With an introduction by Donald Keene; Translated from the Japanese by Ivan Morris.

Rurouni Kenshin is one of the most beloved and popular manga series worldwide. Set against the backdrop of the Meiji Restoration, it tells the saga of Himura Kenshin, once an assassin of ferocious power, now a humble rurouni, a wandering swordsman fighting to protect the honor of those in need.

A hundred and fifty years ago in Kyoto, amid the flames of revolution, there arose a warrior, an assassin of such ferocious power he was given the title Hitokiri: Manslayer. With his bloodstained blade, Hitokiri Battosai helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu period and end the reign of the shoguns, slashing open the way toward the progressive Meiji Era. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years became legend.

In the 11th year of Meiji, in the middle of Tokyo, the tale begins. Himura Kenshin, a humble rurouni, or wandering swordsman, comes to the aid of Kamiya Kaoru, a young woman struggling to defend her father's school of swordsmanship against attacks by the infamous Hitokiri Battosai. But neither Kenshin nor Battosai are quite what they seem...

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea tells the tale of a band of savage thirteen-year-old boys who reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call "objectivity." When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealize the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard their disappointment in him as an act of betrayal on his part, and react violently.

Japan's most highly regarded novelist, Haruki Murakami, vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II.

In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon. It includes three books in one volume: The Thieving Magpie, Bird as Prophet, and The Birdcatcher. This translation by Jay Rubin is in collaboration with the author.

Hiroshima Mon Amour is a profound exploration of the influence of war on both Japanese and French culture. The screenplay, written by Marguerite Duras, accompanies the classic film directed by Alain Renais, which gained international acclaim upon its release in 1959.

This story revolves around a love affair between a Japanese architect and a French actress who visits Japan to make a film on peace. Hiroshima Mon Amour delves deeply into the themes of love and inhumanity, offering a stunning portrayal of personal and cultural conflict.

With its compelling narrative and artistic brilliance, this screenplay remains one of the most influential works in the history of cinema.

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

Kenzaburō Ōe, internationally acclaimed as one of the most important and influential post-World War II writers, is known for his powerful accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and his own struggle to come to terms with a mentally handicapped son.

His most personal book, A Personal Matter, is the story of Bird, a frustrated intellectual in a failing marriage. His utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth to a brain-damaged child. Bird is left with a disconcerting picture of the human predicament as he navigates shame, disgrace, and self-discovery.

This novel is a profound exploration of personal crisis and the search for meaning in the chaos of life.

The Elephant Vanishes is a collection that showcases the imaginative genius of Haruki Murakami, an international literary icon. These stories blend the mundane with the extraordinary, creating a world where the surreal becomes the new normal.

A man witnesses the inexplicable disappearance of his favorite elephant, newlyweds find themselves driven by insatiable hunger to rob a McDonald's, and a young woman becomes the object of affection for a peculiar green monster. Each story takes the reader on a journey across the boundaries of reality, returning with remarkable treasures.

By turns haunting and hilarious, this collection includes the story Barn Burning, which inspired the major motion picture Burning.

A Pale View of Hills is the highly acclaimed debut novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Nobel Prize winning author. This story unfolds the life of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, as she reflects on the tragic suicide of her daughter.

As Etsuko retreats into her past, she finds herself reliving a particular hot summer in Nagasaki, where she and her friends endeavored to rebuild their lives after the war. Amidst these memories, her recollections of a strange friendship with Sachiko—a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy—begin to take on a disturbing cast.

The novel intricately explores themes of memory, guilt, and the haunting shadows of the past, set against the backdrop of post-war Japan.

Banana Yoshimoto's novels of young life in Japan have made her an international sensation. Goodbye Tsugumi is an offbeat story of a deep and complicated friendship between two female cousins that ranks among her best work.

Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled, and occasionally cruel. Now Maria's father is finally able to bring Maria and her mother to Tokyo, ushering Maria into a world of university, impending adulthood, and a "normal" family.

When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi's inner strength and the real possibility of losing her.

Goodbye Tsugumi is a beguiling, resonant novel from one of the world's finest young writers.

The conclusion of the Phantom Blood Arc! Jonathan Joestar and his mentor Zeppelli continue their pursuit of the villainous vampire, Dio! But to get to him, they must first face down his murderous henchmen! In battle after bloody battle, JoJo and Zeppelli are pushed to their limits and beyond!

As if Dio wasn't diabolical enough, now he's an immortal vampire with incredible strength! But Jonathan Joestar's not one to back down, even when it seems like victory is impossible! It's a classic battle! Good versus evil! Grit and determination against power and arrogance! Who will win?!

A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, Norwegian Wood blends the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman. 

Young Jonathan Joestar's life is forever changed when he meets his new adopted brother, Dio. For some reason, Dio has a smoldering grudge against him and derives pleasure from seeing him suffer. But every man has his limits, as Dio finds out. This is the beginning of a long and hateful relationship!

In Praise of Shadows is an essay on aesthetics by the renowned Japanese novelist, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. This book explores various elements of Japanese culture, such as architecture, jade, food, and even toilets, combining an acute sense of the use of space in buildings.

The book includes perfect descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and the mysterious allure of women in the darkness of the house of pleasure. Tanizaki contrasts the subtlety and nuance of traditional Japanese interiors with the dazzling light of the modern age, offering a classic description of the collision between these two worlds.

Shōgun is the world-famous novel of Japan that marks the beginning of James Clavell's masterly Asian saga. Set in 1600, it narrates the tale of a bold English pilot whose ship is blown ashore in Japan, where he is immersed in the complex political and cultural tapestry of the country.

The story features John Blackthorne, who dreams of becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, control the trade between Japan and China, and return home a man of wealth and position. He encounters Toranaga, a formidable feudal lord with ambitions of becoming Shogun—the Supreme Military Dictator. Simultaneously, Blackthorne is drawn to the beautiful interpreter, Lady Mariko, who is torn between her loyalties to the Church and her country, and her love for Blackthorne, the outsider.

Shōgun offers a mesmerizing depiction of a nation on the brink of transformation, brimming with violence, intrigue, and the clash of cultures. It is a narrative that captures the struggle for power, ambition, and the inner conflicts of its characters.

Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organizing a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor’s rightful power.

As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart. Runaway Horses is the chronicle of a conspiracy — a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war.

Tokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders - rich provincial families, a new and powerful political and social elite.

Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family - members of the waning aristocracy - but he is not one of them. Coming of age, he is caught up in the tensions between the old and the new, and his feelings for the exquisite, spirited Satoko, observed from the sidelines by his devoted friend Honda.

When Satoko is engaged to a royal prince, Kiyoaki realises the magnitude of his passion.

The Silent Cry follows two brothers, Takashi and Mitsu, as they return from Tokyo to the village of their childhood. The selling of their family home leads them to an inescapable confrontation with their family history.

Their attempt to escape the influence of the city ends in failure as they realize that its tentacles extend to everything in the countryside, including their own relationship. The Silent Cry is a profound exploration of the human condition and family psychology, set against the backdrop of rural Japan.

As long-kept family secrets are revealed, the brothers' strained bond is pushed to its breaking-point, and their lives are irrevocably changed. This novel is a disconcerting picture of the human predicament, where life and myth condense to create a powerful narrative.