Three unsettling novellas about obsession, cruelty, and the danger hiding inside ordinary life. Ogawa’s writing is beautiful, which somehow makes the stories even more disturbing.

Cover of A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang, a cozy Korean magical realism novel about a midnight bakery for spirits seeking closure.

Murakami’s Men Without Women explores loneliness, longing, and the private worlds men build when love slips away. A soft, surprising, and deeply human collection that shows Murakami at his most vulnerable.

The Real Osamu Dazai collects twenty stories that show the full range of Dazai’s writing, from painful and deeply personal to surprisingly funny and tender. A fascinating look at the man behind the myth.

A reflective novel of three intersecting lives at a small Tokyo café. Each story holds both sadness and hope, showing how people continue and connect in deeply human ways.

The Essential Akutagawa is a rich, readable collection of twenty-two stories that move between folklore, humor, and moral darkness. It’s an approachable entry into Japanese classics and a sharp look at the best and worst of being human.

The title could just as easily have been The Rage We Pass Down. That is what I felt on every page. Rage mixed with grief, with ghosts standing in for the violence that shaped this family. The horror never felt separate from the real — it was historical and horror at the same time.

Set in 1966 China, The Morgue Keeper is not a story of rebellion in the traditional sense… it's a story of survival, of sharing cigarettes and kindness when there's nothing left. I finished it wrecked, and grateful to have read it.

A fast, voice-driven novel about a Korean teen in Japan navigating love, violence, and the harsh politics of identity. Sharp, funny, and deeply personal Go hits hard and leaves a mark

8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is a brutal, layered story about what it means to live through history that tries to erase you — and the impossible choices women have had to make to survive.

A quiet, haunting novel that unfolds in layers — snow, silence, and a history that still trembles underfoot.

What struck me most was how physical the reading experience felt. You don’t just think about these pieces. You feel them.

He felt himself floating far out at sea, deep down in the silence, alone. He was conscious only of the sea, and of himself in the sea.

An intimate, poetic reflection on motherhood, language, and identity. Gillian Sze captures early parenthood with rare grace and emotional clarity.

Jinwoo Park’s debut novel Oxford Soju Club might look like a spy story on the surface, but it’s really a quiet and sharp novel about identity, performance, and fractured belonging in the Korean diaspora.

A quiet, flexible book club focused on Asian literature — short novels, thoughtful conversations, and spoiler-free discussion at your own pace.

A quiet, emotionally layered novel about love, missed connection, and the slow ache of wrong timing. Graceful and unresolved in all the right ways.

A soft, surreal novella about memory, care, and emotional quiet. Marigold Mind Laundry doesn’t ask you to understand — just to sit with it.

A delicate, devastating novel of loneliness and unspoken pain. Read my spoiler-free review of Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin, quiet, poetic, unforgettable.

Beautifully written and deeply disturbing, Mishima’s novel is a haunting dive into the fragility of human ideals, the cruelty of innocence, and the darkness that lies beneath admiration.