From the author of Winter in Sokcho, Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window. Women's calves, men's shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long.

It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old

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A victorian epic transplanted to Japan, following a Korean family of immigrants through eight decades and four generations.

Claire está a punto de cumplir treinta años y con la llegada del verano, decide ir a pasar una temporada con sus abuelos maternos en Tokio y acompañarlos en un viaje a su Corea natal, que abandonaron cuando comenzó la guerra civil y a donde nunca han regresado. En Tokio, Claire se reencontrará con los recuerdos de su infancia y con un país donde no puede evitar sentirse una extraña. De sus abuelos la separan la distancia generacional y el idioma:...

Unemployed, broke and engaged in a telepathic turf war with a feral cat behind an Okinawa convenience store, 28-year-old Fred Buchanan is hopelessly lost in life. After a fortuitous bet on the island bullfights, he boards a ferry to Kobe then a slow train to Tokyo, chasing shadows of a halogen dream. Back in Tokyo, past and present collide as an empty orchestra croons a slow dance of people and place, memory and madness, loss and love. Charging...

". . . A sweeping historical debut for fans of Lilac Girls, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Kristin Hannah that brings to life the heartbreaking history of Korea through the deeply moving and redemptive story of two sisters separated by World War II"-- Korean sisters living under Japanese rule during World War II are separated when Hana, the older sister, saves her younger sister Emi from an assault. Hana is transported to Manchuria, where she is forced...

A collection of the year's best short stories, selected by National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee and series editor Heidi Pitlor. Min Jin Lee, author of the highly acclaimed National Book Award Finalist Pachinko, selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

This week's episode is the tidbits collection. Everything from Dekapan-man, to what happens if you try to hoard your pachinko winnings, to a bath house quiz.

"Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the "trickster." Inspired by the story of Lee's great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as...

"From the author of The Calligrapher's Daughter comes the riveting story of two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart"--

Whether contemplating Tokyo's odd-shaped bonsai houses, pachinko parlors, chopstick ballet, or the perilous habit of running for trains, the short, personal writings in Beauty and Chaos explore Tokyo from the inside to reveal the city's deeper meanings and daily pleasures. Part travelogue, part comparative culture, and packed with insights, these sharply observed vignettes tap into the daily mysteries of Tokyo life to reveal what's beneath the gleaming,...