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Hear the Wind Sing
by Haruki Murakami
A young man's journey of self-discovery and exploration of life's possibilities.
Feeling writing as a terribly painful task, the narrator re-tells the story of his 1970 summer. He was a student at a university in Tokyo then, and returned to his seaside hometown in Niigata for ... (Wikipedia)
A Wild Sheep Chase
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of self-discovery through fantasy, reality, and the unknown.
This quasi-detective tale follows an unnamed, chain-smoking narrator and his adventures in Tokyo and Hokkaido in 1978. The story begins when the recently divorced protagonist, an advertisement ... (Wikipedia)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal exploration of two separate yet interwoven realities.
The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters take place in the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland', although the phrase is not used anywhere in the text, only in page headers. The ... (Wikipedia)
Kitchen
by Banana Yoshimoto
A young woman's journey of self-discovery and healing, exploring the kitchen of her dreams.
From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a culinary teacher's assistant to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into the life of a young Japanese woman ... (Wikipedia)
Rashomon and Other Stories
by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human nature and morality through vivid characters and intricate plots.
The story recounts the encounter between a servant and an old woman in the dilapidated Rashōmon , the southern gate of the then-ruined city of Kyoto , where unclaimed corpses were sometimes dumped. ... (Wikipedia)
The Strange Journey of Mr. Daldry
by Marc Levy
Alice, a young widow, embarks on a journey to find the mysterious Mr. Daldry and discovers unexpected truths about herself and her past.
We all have two lives... The life we know and another one, that lies waiting for us. Alice is a “nose”—a creator of perfumes. She is passionate about her work and her only distraction from her job is ... (Goodreads)
Journey Under the Midnight Sun
by Keigo Higashino
A decades-long murder mystery unravels in Tokyo, revealing the interconnected lives of two families.
When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are ... (Goodreads)
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
by Gabriel García Márquez
A sailor's journey of survival and resilience in the face of a harrowing shipwreck.
This is Marquez's account of a real-life event. In 1955, eight crew members of the destroyer Caldas, were swept into the Caribbean Sea. The sole survivor, Luis Alejandro Belasco, told the true ... (Goodreads)
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
by Agatha Christie
Detective Hercule Poirot investigates the mysterious death of a doctor and uncovers a sinister plot.
Hercule Poirot meets former actress Mabelle Sainsbury Seale while leaving his appointment with dentist Henry Morley. In this meeting, he retrieves a shiny buckle for her that had fallen from her ... (Wikipedia)
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.
The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)
The Japanese Lover
by Isabel Allende
Unexpected love story between two unlikely people, spanning generations and continents.
From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende, “a magical and sweeping” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) love story and multigenerational epic that stretches from San Francisco in the ... (Barnes & Noble)
As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner
A family's struggle to fulfill the dying wish of their mother, amidst personal and societal challenges.
The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations—noble or selfish—to honor her wish ... (Wikipedia)
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
A story of unrequited love in the midst of war.
The novel is divided into five sections or 'books'. Frederic Henry is first person narrator of the story. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American paramedic , is serving in the Italian Army . The novel ... (Wikipedia)
The Devotion of Suspect X
by Keigo Higashino
A genius physicist helps his neighbor cover up a murder, while a relentless detective investigates the crime.
Yasuko lives a quiet life, working in a Tokyo bento shop, a good mother to her only child. But when her ex-husband appears at her door without warning one day, her comfortable world is shattered. ... (Goodreads)
By Night in Chile
by Roberto Bolaño
A Catholic priest reflects on his past life, offering insight on Chilean politics.
The story is narrated entirely in the first person by the sick and aging Father Urrutia. Taking place over the course of a single evening, the book is the macabre, feverish monologue of a flawed man ... (Wikipedia)
Neuromancer
by William Gibson
A hacker's journey through a dystopian cyberpunk world, searching for a way to survive.
Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City , Japan. Once a talented computer hacker , Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, ... (Wikipedia)
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell
A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.
The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)
The Prague Cemetery
by Umberto Eco
A thrilling, historical mystery, unravelling the secrets of a 19th century conspiracy.
The main character is Simone Simonini, a man whom Eco claims he has tried to make into the most cynical and disagreeable character in all the history of literature , (and is the only fictional ... (Wikipedia)
Saga, Volume 6
by Brian K. Vaughan
The sixth installment of the epic space opera graphic novel series, following the lives of a family caught in the midst of an intergalactic war.
After a dramatic time jump, the three-time Eisner Award winner for Best Continuing Series continues to evolve, as Hazel begins the most exciting adventure of her life: kindergarten. Meanwhile, her ... (Barnes & Noble)
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
An interstellar journey of exploration, confronting humanity's place in the universe.
A mysterious alien civilization uses a tool with the appearance of a large crystalline monolith to investigate worlds across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent ... (Wikipedia)
The Twelve
by Justin Cronin
Humanity fighting for survival against a vampire apocalypse.
After briefly revisiting some of the surviving characters from the first book, the novel jumps back to the start of the plague. Four plot lines emerge: an autistic young school bus driver named Danny ... (Wikipedia)
The Trial
by Franz Kafka
A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
An elderly man reflects on his past, uncovering long-buried secrets and memories.
We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and one of the first days of ... (Goodreads)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
A Dirty Job
by Christopher Moore
A comedic journey of a man's life as he is forced to confront death and the underworld.
The story centers on Charlie Asher, a "beta-male" (as opposed to " alpha-male ") who leads a satisfying life as the owner and proprietor of a second-hand store in San Francisco. At the moment when ... (Wikipedia)
Snow
by Orhan Pamuk
A man's journey of self-discovery in a politically charged atmosphere in Turkey.
Though most of the early part of the story is told in the third person from Ka's point of view, an omniscient narrator sometimes makes his presence known, posing as a friend of Ka's who is telling ... (Wikipedia)
Portnoy's Complaint
by Philip Roth
A young Jewish man's exploration of his own identity and the nature of his relationships.
The famous confession of Alexander Portnoy, who is thrust through life by his unappeasable sexuality, yet held back at the same time by the iron grip of his unforgettable childhood. Hilariously ... (Goodreads)
No Longer Human
by Osamu Dazai
A young man's struggles with emotional turmoil and suicidal ideation.
Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human , this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a ... (Goodreads)
Convenience Store Woman
by Sayaka Murata
A darkly comic story of a woman's search for acceptance and belonging in a society that doesn't fit her.
Keiko Furukura is a 36-year old woman who has been working part-time at a convenience store , or konbini , for the last 18 years. She has known since childhood that she is "different" and that ... (Wikipedia)
Big Sur
by Jack Kerouac
A semi-autobiographical novel about Kerouac's time in Big Sur, California, struggling with alcoholism and the pressures of fame.
"Each book by Jack Kerouac is unique, a telepathic diamond. With prose set in the middle of his mind, he reveals consciousness itself in all its syntactic elaboration, detailing the luminous ... (Goodreads)
