Ishii Shinji Libros

Long-awaited by teachers and students, Read Real Japanese Fiction presents short works by six of todays most daring and provocative Japanese writers. The spellbinding world of Hiromi Kawakami; the hair-raising horror of Otsuichi; the haunting, poignant prose of Banana Yoshimoto; even the poetic word-play of Yoko Tawada whatever a readers taste, he or she is sure to find something of interest and value in this book, suitable for students at the intermediate level and above. As in real Japanese novels, the text on each page runs from top to bottom and from right to left. Each double-page spread features translations of all the difficult passages. In the back of the book, moreover, is a built-in Japanese-English learners dictionary and a notes section covering issues of nuance, usage, grammar and culture that come up in each story. Best of all, the books comes with a free audio CD containing narrations of the stories, performed by a professional voice actress.

A dual-language edition of Japanese stories—many appearing in English for the first time This volume of eight short stories, with parallel translations, offers students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without having constantly to refer back to a dictionary. The stories—many of which appear here in English for the first time—are by well-known writers like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, as well as emerging voices like Abe Kazushige, Ishii Shinji, and Kawakami Hiromi. From the orthodox to the cutting-edge, they represent a range of styles and themes, showcasing the diversity of Japanese fiction over the past few decades in a collection that is equally rewarding for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students of English or Japanese. Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language.

In einer schwülen Sommernacht begegnet Katze, ein ungewöhnlich großer Junge mit einer Katzenstimme, zum ersten Mal Kuhtse. Ein Geräusch reißt ihn aus dem Schlaf und als er aus dem Fenster blickt, breitet sich vor seinen Augen ein goldgelbes Weizenfeld aus, auf dem ein leuchtend gelb gekleideter Kauz mit seinen Füßen jenes rhythmische, monotone Geräusch erzeugt, das Katze geweckt hat. Die Begegnungen mit Grün, dem farbenblinden Mädchen, dem Schattenboxer, den alle Schmetterlingsmann nennen, und dem blinden Cello-Virtuosen verschaffen Katze Zugang zu einem musikalischen Kosmos, der für alle Sonderlinge einen Platz bereithält und in dem Kuhtses Stiefel den Rhythmus vorgeben. Ein märchenhafter Roman über eine Welt der Musik und der Fantasie, in der es keinen Gegenstand gibt, der nicht als Instrument taugt.