A captivating selection of short stories in the original Japanese alongside their English translations

This new dual-language edition of ten stories selected from The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories celebrates some of the very best Japanese literature from the past hundred years. Each story appears in the original Japanese alongside an expert English translation, providing unique cultural insight and literary inspiration for language learners. Ranging from a witty send-up of modern social graces to a powerful evocation of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this remarkable collection includes works from beloved authors Abe Akira, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Betsuyaku Minoru, Hoshi Shin'ichi, Kawakami Mieko, Kono Taeko, Murakami Haruki, Oba Minako, Ota Yoko and Uchida Hyakken.

In an "other world" composed of language--it could be a fathomless Martian well, a labyrinthine hotel or forest--a narrative unfolds, and with it the experiences, memories, and dreams that constitute reality for Haruki Murakami's characters and readers alike. Memories and dreams in turn conjure their magical counterparts--people without names or pasts, fantastic animals, half-animals, and talking machines that traverse the dark psychic underworld of this writer's extraordinary fiction.

Fervently acclaimed worldwide, Murakami's wildly imaginative work in many ways remains a mystery, its worlds within worlds uncharted territory. Finally in this book readers will find a map to the strange realm that grounds virtually every aspect of Murakami's writing. A journey through the enigmatic and baffling innermost mind, a metaphysical dimension where Murakami's most bizarre scenes and characters lurk, The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami exposes the psychological and mythological underpinnings of this other world. Matthew Carl Strecher shows how these considerations color Murakami's depictions of the individual and collective soul, which constantly shift between the tangible and intangible but in this literary landscape are undeniably real.

Through these otherworldly depths The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami also charts the writer's vivid "inner world," whether unconscious or underworld (what some Japanese critics call achiragawa, or "over there"), and its connectivity to language. Strecher covers all of Murakami's work--including his efforts as a literary journalist--and concludes with the first full-length close reading of the writer's newest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event. 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. A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.

An assault on the senses, part murder mystery, part metaphysical speculation; a fable for our times as catchy as a rock song blasting from the window of a sports car.

High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem.

Combine this offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose and out comes Dance Dance Dance.

You've just passed someone on the street who could be the love of your life, the person you're destined for - what do you do? In Murakami's world, you tell them a story. The five weird and wonderful tales collected here each unlock the many-tongued language of desire, whether it takes the form of hunger, lust, sudden infatuation or the secret longings of the heart.

Selected from Haruki's Murakami's short story collections The Elephant Vanishes, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, Men Without Women

A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series-
Love by Jeanette Winterson
Psychedelics by Aldous Huxley
Eating by Nigella Lawson
Summer by Laurie Lee

A dizzying short story collection that displays Murakami's genius for uncovering the surreal in the everyday, the extraordinary within the ordinary

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset. A couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's. A woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden. An insomniac wife wakes up in a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death.

In every one of these stories Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal.

This is a 1989 best-selling memoir by Peter Mayle about his first year in Provence, and the local events and customs. It was adapted into a television mini-series starring John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan. Reviewers praised the book by its honest style and its refreshing humour.

Portrays a police lieutenant's struggle with his conscience when he violates strict South African law concerning relationships between Blacks and whites.

A man with a tree growing out of his head? A woman with children made of wax? A bird that can be milked? Let Alexander McCall Smith once again take you to a land where the bizarre is everyday and magic is real, with more illustrated stories from his celebration of African folktales.

It has never occurred to Precious Ramotswe that there might be disadvantages to being the best-known lady detective in Botswana. But when she receives a threatening anonymous letter, she is compelled to reconsider her unconquerable belief in a kind world and good neighbours.

While she ponders the identity of the letter-writer Mma Ramotswe has a further set of problems to solve, both professional and personal. There is an adopted child's poignant search for her true family, and Mr J. L. B. Matekoni's pursuit of an expensive miracle for their own foster daughter Motholeli.

With these latest developments on Tlokweng Road, Alexander McCall Smith reveals with all his brilliant storytelling skill that there are very few troubles that cannot be solved with kindness, and very few dry seasons that do not end with welcome rain.

All proceeds from the book will go to the One City charity, which fights social exclusion in the city. Edinburgh's Lord Provost Lesley Hinds said: 'This book project is exactly what One City is all about. The idea of three successful Edinburgh authors, with very different perspectives, getting together to raise awareness and money by using their talent and creativity, is really exciting.'

J. D. Salinger wrote one of the most famous books ever written, The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger wrote many stories and, in 1941, after several rejections, Salinger finally cracked The New Yorker, with a story, "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," that was an early sketch of what became a scene in "The Catcher in the Rye." The magazine then had second thoughts in part because of World War II in which Salinger was in combat, and held the story for five years before finally publishing it in 1946, buried in the back of an issue. Everyone was surprised when the story and the book that followed it became a bit hit. Even today nobody can really explain why Catcher in the Rye is so famous and so popular. Yet, millions have been sold and are still being sold even though only available as used books nowadays. When The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951, it was registered for copyright as "additional material." This obviously referred to the earlier work "Slight Rebellion Off Madison." The copyright page on "The Catcher in the Rye" states "Copyright 1945, 1946, 1951 by J. D Salinger." The date of 1945 obviously refers to the publication of "I'm Crazy," a short story written by Salinger and published in the December 22, 1945 issue of Collier's magazine that first introduced the character Holden Caulfield to the reading public. Salinger later reworked this short story to incorporate it into The Catcher in the Rye. The two earlier stories are "I'm Crazy," an early version of Holden's departure from prep school that later shows up in The Catcher in the Rye. With minor alteration, much of this story is familiar to readers as the chapter where Holden visits Mr. Spencer. What sets this story apart is the presence of an additional Caulfield sister and the clarity of Holden's resignation and compromise at the end. "Slight Rebellion off Madison" is an early version of another scene in The Catcher in the Rye. The story follows Holden when he is home from Pency and goes to the movies, then skating with Sally Hayes, followed by his drunken calls to her apartment late at night. An early story, it is the first of Salinger's Caulfied works to be accepted for publication.

Verscheen voor het eerst in 1953. Bevat onderandere: A Perfect Day for Bananafish, For Esme with Love and Squalor, Down at the Dinghy, Teddy e.a.

Editedand with an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine. University of Kent at Canterbury.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is the most popular, influential and controversial book written by an American. Stowe's rich, panoramic novel passionately dramatises why the whole of America is implicated in and responsible for the sin of slavery, and resoundingly concludes that only 'repentance, justice and mercy' will prevent the onset of 'the wrath of Almighty God!'.

The novel gave such a terrific impetus to the crusade for the abolition of slavery that President Lincoln half-jokingly greeted Stowe as'the little lady' who started the great Civil War. As Keith Carabine argues in his lively and provocative Introduction, the novel immediately provoked a storm of competing and contradictory responses among Northern and Southern readers, moderate and radical abolitionist groups, blacks and women, with regard to issues of form, genre, politics, religion, race and gender, that are still of great interest because they anticipate the concerns that vex and divide modern readers and critical constituencies.

Experience the brutality of war and the power of love in Ernest Hemingway`s timeless classic.

Inspired by his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. After being ordered to work with guerrilla fighters to destroy a bridge, Jordan finds himself falling in love with a young Spanish woman and clashing with the guerrilla leader over the risks of their mission.

One of the great novels of the twentieth century, For Whom the Bell Tolls powerfully explores the loss of innocence, the value of human life, and the inescapable brutality of war. First published in 1940, this enduring masterpiece showcases Hemingway's distinctive style and his mastery of the literary form.

This stunning edition features an afterword by Ned Halley. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of beautiful gift editions of beloved classics, it is a volume to treasure for literature lovers and Hemingway fans alike.

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck, a domestic dog who is kidnapped from his home in California and forced to pull sleds in the Arctic wasteland. White Fang, by contrast, is the tale of a crossbreed who is three-quarters wolf and a quarter dog, and who must endure considerable suffering in the wilderness before being tamed by an American and taken to live in California.

Extraordinary both for the vividness of their descriptions and the success with which they imagine life from a non-human perspective, these two classics of children’s literature are two of the greatest and most popular animal stories ever written.

This beautiful Macmillan Collector’s Library edition features an afterword by Sam Gilpin.

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

This companion volume to the Tales of Mystery and Imagination contains Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known poetry, and a selection of his very best stories (many of which originate in his 1840s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque), along with his finest tales from the last decade of his tragically short life.

Many of these stories and poems tell of the familiar Poe themes of murder, obsession and love, but this volume also contains many overlooked tales of the fantastic, black comedies, parodies and hoaxes, such as ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfall’, ‘Mesmeric Revolution’, ‘Hop-Frog’, and ‘The Imp of the Perverse’.

Sarah, nosy-but-nice English teaching fellow, and her husband, Alex, are at it again. Due to an unfortunate accident that incapacitates a friend, Sarah's abrasive aunt Julia is offered two free tickets with Whirlaway Tours. After much arguing and little listening, Sarah finds herself serving as Julia's companion for the trip. Eyebrows are raised, however, when the group meets in Boston's Logan Airport and Ellen Trevino, the tour's garden expert, doesn't show. Sarah begins to worry that Ellen's problem may be worse than a delayed connecting flight. As strange clues begin to pile up, Sarah calls home to ask Alex to follow up on Ellen's disappearance. Sarah and Alex manage to scrutinize facts and motives from two separate coasts, but Sarah's penchant for snooping may finally have gotten her in too deep....

This edition (1932) is including an introduction by the author. The book was first published in 1921.

One of the finest novels written and among the most influential books of the 20th century. 

Autobiografische verhalen over de verschrikkingen van de Duitse concentratiekampen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. ENGELSTALIG

In David Vann's searing novel Goat Mountain an eleven-year-old boy is eager to make his first kill at his family's annual deer hunt. But all is not as it should be. His father discovers a poacher on the land a 640-acre ranch in Northern California and shows him to the boy through the scope of his rifle. With this simple gesture tragedy erupts shattering lives irrevocably.

Set over the course of one hot and hellish weekend Goat Mountain is the story of a family struggling to contend with a terrible crime and its repercussions. David Vann creates a haunting and provocative novel that explores our most primal urges and beliefs the bonds of blood and religion that define and secure us and the consequences of our actions - what we owe for what we've done.

An Arab-American novel as delicious as Like Water for Chocolate. Praised by Critics from The New Yorker to USA Today for the first novel, Arabian Jazz ("an oracular tale that unfurls like gossamer"), Diana Abu-Jaber weaves with spellbinding magic a multidimensional love story set in the Arab-American community of Los Angeles. Thirty-nine-year-old Sitine, never married, lives with a devoted Iraqi-immigrnt uncle and an adoring dog named King Babar. She works as a chef in a Lebanese restaurant, her passions aroused only by the preparation of food--until an unbearably handsome Arabic literature professor starts dropping by for a little home cooking. Falling in love brings Sirene's whole heart to a boil--stirring up memories of her parents and questions about her identity as an Arab American. Written in a lush, lyrical style teminiscent of The God of Small Things, infused with the flavors and scents of Middle Eastern food, and spiced with history and fable, Creseent is a sensuous love story and a gripping tale of risk and commitment.

Autobiografisch getint relaas over een jongen die opgroeit in Israel in een intellectueel milieu.

Préface, notes et dossiers par Jacques Neefs

Une jeune femme romanesque qui s'était construit un monde romantiquement rèvé tente d'échapper - dans un vertige grandissant - à l'ennui de sa province, la médiocrité de son mariage et la platitude de sa vie. Mais quand Flaubert publie Madame Bovary, en 1857, toute la nouveauté du roman réside dans le contraste entre un art si hautement accompli et la peinture d'un univers si ordinaire. L'écriture transfigure la vie, mais s'y adapte si étroitement qu'elle la fait naître sous nos yeux.
« Ce n'était plus du roman comme l'avaient fait les plus grands », dira Maupassant: « C'était la vie elle-mème apparue. On eût dit que les personnages se dressaient sous les yeux en tournant les pages, que les paysages se déroulaient avec leurs tristesses et leur gaieté, leurs odeurs, leur charme, que les objets aussi surgissaient devant le lecteur à mesure que les évoquait une puissance invisible, cachée on ne sait où. »

Three skeletons are found in a Montreal basement.

The building is old, and the homicide detective in charge dismisses the remains as historic. Not his case. Not his concern.

Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is not so sure. Something about the bones of these three young women suggests a different message: murder.

Soon she finds herself drawn ever deeper into a web of evil from which there may be no escape. Three women have disappeared, never to return. Will Tempe be next?

All is quiet in Moscow. The squeak of wheels is seldom heard in the snow-covered street. There are no lights left in the windows and the street lamps have been extinguished. Only the sound of bells, borne over the city from the church towers, suggests the approach of morning. The streets are deserted. At rare intervals a night-cabman's sledge kneads up the snow and sand in the street as the driver makes his way to another corner where he falls asleep while waiting for a fare. An old woman passes by on her way to church, where a few wax candles burn with a red light reflected on the gilt mountings of the icons. Workmen are already getting up after the long winter night and going to their work-but for the gentlefolk it is still evening. From a window in Chevalier's Restaurant a light-illegal at that hour-is still to be seen through a chink in the shutter. At the entrance a carriage, a sledge, and a cabman's sledge, stand close together with their backs to the curbstone. A three-horse sledge from the post-station is there also. A yard-porter muffled up and pinched with cold is sheltering behind the corner of the house. 'And what's the good of all this jawing?' thinks the footman who sits in the hall weary and haggard. 'This always happens when I'm on duty.' From the adjoining room are heard the voices of three young men, sitting there at a table on which are wine and the remains of supper. One, a rather plain, thin, neat little man, sits looking with tired kindly eyes at his friend, who is about to start on a journey. Another, a tall man, lies on a sofa beside a table on which are empty bottles, and plays with his watch-key. A third, wearing a short, fur-lined coat, is pacing up and down the room stopping now and then to crack an almond between his strong, rather thick, but well-tended fingers. He keeps smiling at something and his face and eyes are all aglow. He speaks warmly and gesticulates, but evidently does not find the words he wants and those that occur to him seem to him inadequate to express what has risen to his heart.