Books by Natsume Sōseki
“It is one of the best-known works of fiction by one of Japan’s best-known authors. I have a soft spot for Kokoro, probably because it was the first novel I read entirely in Japanese. Natsume Sōseki was a wonderful writer and his prose is incredibly beautiful. I find the novel fascinating because it is about a nation on the verge of dramatic change. Sōseki’s life (1867–1916) overlapped almost entirely with the Meiji period (1868–1912), and the novel articulates the sensibilities of the late Meiji era and the tensions of a modernising nation.” Read more...
The Best Modern Japanese Literature
Linda Flores, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Natsume Sōseki were recommended
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1
Convenience Store Woman: A Novel
by Sayaka Murata -
2
The Memory Police
by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder -
3
All She Was Worth
by Alfred Birnbaum (translator) & Miyuki Miyabe -
4
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami -
5
The City and Its Uncertain Walls: A Novel
by Haruki Murakami -
6
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
by Hayao Miyazaki
Books By Japanese Authors
Books By Japanese Authors
Japanese literature has always performed strongly on Five Books, so we’ve put together an overview of some of the books on our site by Japanese authors that have previously been recommended by our expert interviewees—from contemporary novels shortlisted for the International Booker Prize to classic works of literature, and everything in between.
The Best Modern Japanese Literature, recommended by Linda Flores
To the western eye, Japan often appears as a surprising combination of very advanced development, and extreme cultural peculiarity. Linda Flores, Associate Professor of modern Japanese literature at the University of Oxford, guides us through this discovery with five great works of modern Japanese literature.
