japanese literature

in english

search japanese books translated into english:

Translator: Smith, Alexander O.

  • All you need is kill

    There’s only one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again….

  • Ten billion days and one hundred billion nights

    Ten billion days–that is how long it will take the philosopher Plato to determine the true systems of the world. One hundred billion nights–that is how far into the future he and Christ and Siddhartha Gautama will travel into the future to witness the end of the world and also its fiery birth. Named the…

  • The summer of ubume

    In Japanese folklore, a ghost that arise from the burial of a pregnant woman is an Ubume. The Summer of Ubume is the first of Japan’s hugely popular Kyogokudo series, which has 9 titles and 4 spinoffs thus far. Akihiko “Kyogokudo” Chuzenji, the title’s hero, is an exorcist with a twist: he doesn’t blieve in…

  • The Book of Heroes

    When her brother Hiroki disappears after a violent altercation with school bullies, eleven-year-old Yuriko finds a magical book in his room which leads her to another world where she learns that Hiroki has been possessed by a spirit from The Book of Heroes.

  • Ico, castle in the mist

    Iko, a boy with horns, is sent to an evil castle shrouded in mist, where he meets an imprisoned girl named Yoruda. Then, he decides to fight the castle lord to overcome his destiny and escape with Yoruda.

  • Harmony

    In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn’t that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn’t work, but one of the girls–Tuan Kirie–grows up…

  • The devotion of suspect X

    Yasuko Hanaoka thought she had escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day, the situation quickly escalates and Togashi ends up dead. Yasuko’s next-door-neighbor Ishigami offers his help, not only disposing of the body, but plotting the cover-up as well.

  • Salvation for a saint

    When a man about to leave his wife is found murdered and the wife has a too-convenient alibi that convinces a smitten lead detective of her innocence, Professor Manubu Yukawa is tapped by a concerned Kaoru Utsumi to solve a seemingly impossible case.

  • Brave story

    With a determined plan to reunite his mother and father, the 10-year-old boy named Wataru knowingly enters a fantasy realm inhabited by a goddess who has the power to change destiny. With the help of the Lizard Boy, the Cat Girl, and the Fire-breathing Dragon, Wataru faces a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles on this…