Keigo Higashino’s 2020 novel The Keeper of the Camphor Tree is a supernatural mystery about a young man finding his path in life as he attempts to uncover the secrets of a giant tree with magical p…

ITI's response to the European Commission's Call for Evidence on the proposed AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors

<p>Jade and Luklan are a young pair of partners chosen by God to join the ranks of warriors that protect the sacred butterflies that rise from the depths of the world to pollinate the land's most important staple food from the shadow moths, dark creatures that feed on the butterflies. Luklan, however, is unable to fight as the fire that announces each wave of butterflies bewitches her. As she and Jade worry about their position among the warriors' ranks, they work on solving the puzzle of her condition, the answer which might have dramatic implications for the Church and the meaning of light and dark.</p>

Title: ことり [Little Birds]Author: Yoko OgawaPublisher: Asahi Shimbun Shuppan (2016)English translation: None at present Review contains some plot spoilers (though the book isn’t particularly depende…

<p>An Okinawan boy with mixed American-Okinawan ancestry runs to the ocean with his friend to play during Obon. A soldier from the war finds a woman with her baby begging for help. A woman defies her ...

<p>When Hideki was a boy left alone at his grandmother's house with his infirm grandfather, a visitor comes asking after her. It isn't until the visitor asks for Hideki's dead uncle that Hideki realiz...

<p>Middle-schooler Takuma is forced to move in with his aunt and grandmother in a tiny mountain town after his parents' death. His time at school gets off to a bad start when a classmate accuses him o...

Title: 笑う森 [The Laughing Forest]Author: Hiroshi OgiwaraPublisher: Shinchosha (2024)English translation: None at present Cover art by Mayumi Tsuzuki Five-year-old Mahito is missing in the woods. Whe…

<p>Schoolgirl and model Ichiru is struggling with her fame, or lack thereof, but stumbles upon a comforting penpal named Shizu. Only, Shizu is living in Japan a hundred years before Ichiru, and their ...

<p>Kumagorō has survived this long in life because of his ability to visibly see lies and hostility, and now he has a cushy position as the manager of a high-class brothel in Edo-period Japan until on...