Books

How five fashion friends got a starring role fighting discrimination and hate in a new comic book series.

Sosuke Natsukawa’s English-language debut about a withdrawn boy who joins a chatty cat on a quest to liberate books is quirky and heartwarming in equal measure.

Curator Frank Feltens’ informative monograph illustrates how the inability of a youthful Ogata Korin to manage his affairs had a profound impact on Japanese art.

In Shion Miura’s novel, a young man from Yokohama finds it difficult to fit in with a rural mountain community, but he soon discovers there’s more to life than the trappings of city living.

Ralph Hassig and Kongdan Oh’s survey of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea covers the history of the country skillfully, albeit with some gaps in documenting sources.

Kristina Cho dedicates her book to the staples and sweet treats of Chinese bakeries, but many of the foolproof recipes will be familiar to readers in Japan.

The new Superman, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, is concerned about the environment, does not shy away from politics and will soon begin a romantic relationship with a male friend.

Over the years, critics have cited a number of possible reasons, with the most prominent being the lack of political statements in his work.

Gurnah was recognized for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”