Book Recommendations?

I’ve tried so hard to get into Haruki Murakami and just can’t, I’ve recently read Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki, tried to read Socrates in Love, but it’s just too sad, didn’t find appeal from The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa or Promenade of the Gods by Koji Suzuki. Osusume Books lists Banana Yoshimoto, Keiichiro Hirano, Kotaro Isaka (waiting for Bullet Train to come out in August), Mieko Kawakami and others, but I have no experience with their works. I’d be curious if anyone here has any experience with Japanese authors and Japanese fiction that’s been translated to English and what you’d recommend. Thanks! :pray:

Lol Haruki Murakami is my fav author. Regardless, I can highly recommend Keigo Higashino, that’s some best detective novels I’ve ever read(not a big fan of classic detectives though). Also Koushun Takami’s Battle royale was a great binge-read. Ryu Murakami’s In the miso soup was not my cup of tea but I know many people who like this Murakami and not the other lol. You can try Kobo Abe if you are into symbolic modernism literature. And also Natsuo Kirino has somewhat interesting stuff(I had mixed feelings about Grotesque but definitely do not regret reading it).

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I’ve read only couple Japanese books: Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa- long novel about Miyamoto Musashi, I had fun time reading it, even though it’s almost 1000 pages long book.
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo- Edgar Allan Poe style crime stories, I found this collection of short stories quite enjoyable, the author is considered the founder of eroguro genre.
No longer human by Osamu Dazai- depressing story about a guy, who was born with extreme levels of self awareness. This book is quite famous.
Now I wonder, are there any urban sci-fi authors in Japan?

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Yukio Mishima’s Sun and Steel

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