I’m having a hard time finding translated Japanese books that don’t feel stilted. I’ve tried a few so far but found they are hard to engage with because of the way it’s translated?
Are there any books you guys can suggest?
Many thanks !
by Chatime101
10 Comments
Natsuo Kirino writes good thrillers – I’ve read Out and Grotesque, which were both very good, and she’s also got Real World which is meant to be good but I haven’t read
Kaoru Takamura’s Lady Joker Parts 1 & 2 are very good also.
Murakami in general is pretty popular, if you haven’t read anything by him.
Sayaka Murata is another one, I think “Convenience Store Woman” is her most popular book and its the only one I’ve read, but she’s written several others.
No Longer Human is a classic for a reason.
The 2014 translation of Battle Royale is supposed to be very good, although I haven’t read it myself so I can’t say anything. But the movie was great and it should be a step up over the 2003 translation.
I also really liked Shinsekai Yori, although that was never officially translated, you just have to go to this guy’s website and download a PDF, since he just translated the whole thing as a hobby. But unlike most of those unofficial translators who do entire books, he actually did a good job.
Confessions by Kanae Minato
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Kawabata is what you need
All of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books, apart from The Remains of the Day, which is set in England.
Youjo Senki Light novel series. There’s a manga and anime version. It’s still in the making. Here’s the plot:
“In 2013 of modern-era Tokyo, an unnamed atheist Japanese salaryman, in the moment of being murdered by a disgruntled subordinate whom he had fired due to poor performance at work, is confronted by an entity that declares itself to be God who condemns the salaryman for not having ‘faith’. The salaryman disbelieves in its existence, criticises its various statements from his perspective as an atheist and mockingly terms it as ‘Being X’. The entity decides to reincarnate the salaryman into a world where he would face sufficiently difficult circumstances to turn to Being X for help.
The salaryman is reborn as Tanya Degurechaff, an orphaned girl in an alternate universe’s equivalent of Imperial Germany, known as the Empire, in which World War I has been delayed until the 1920s and where magic has been incorporated into the military. According to Being X, if Tanya either does not die a natural death or refuses to have faith in it, her soul will leave the cycle of reincarnation and will be sent to hell for the countless sins that Tanya has committed in her previous life. In search for an escape, Tanya decides to join the Empire’s Mage Corps and fight in the war, hoping to reach a high enough rank as fast as possible to remain far from the battlefield, and in this way avoid the risk of being killed. Even if she’s now forced to speak with a young girl’s lips, Tanya soon turns into a ruthless soldier who prioritizes efficiency and her own career over anything else, even the lives of those beneath her, especially those that get on her bad side.”
I’d suggest the ‘other’ Murakami – Ryu Murakami. Try In the Miso Soup or Piercing (there is gore and horror though so not for everyone!)
*Otherside Picnic* by Iori Miyazawa is a great read that I’ll always find an excuse to recommend.
Note: The English translation is published by a typical publisher of translated light novels, prompting the common misconception that it’s a light novel—it’s not. The original Japanese publisher is the biggest sci-fi publisher in Japan, not any of the big light novel publishers, and it reads far more like a ‘traditional’ novel than your average light novel. You shouldn’t have any issues reading it.
Yukikaze by Chohei Kambiyashi. One of my favorite novels and while the prose is very direct I don’t think it has quite the stilted quality a lot of light novels end up having.