Photograph of the Red Circle multi-award winning Japanese author Kazufumi Shiraishi. The only Japanese author to follow in his father’s footsteps by winning the same major Japanese literary prize as his father.This, however, is starting to change following the successful publication of two of his novels in English translation in 2016 and 2017, helping increase his profile within international literary and publishing circles.
The English translations of Me Against the World and The Part of Me That Isn’t Broken Inside, both translated by Raj Mahtani, have been reviewed more than 12 times by international reviewers and critics in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Japan, as well as on social media sites such as Goodreads.
Reviewers have compared Shiraishi’s works to Camus and Nietzsche. The Complete Review, for instance, described The Part of Me That Isn’t Broken Inside as “exceptionally well done, a novel that seems to meander almost aimlessly along with its self-indulgent narrator yet is a tight and profound exploration of human hurt and intimate relationships. An impressive work”. One reader on Goodreads says that Me Against the World is “the best birthday gift I bought for myself”.
Publishers across Asia are snapping up the rights to Shiraishi’s novels as his popularity grows in the region. The rights to 15 of his works have been bought for publication in Taiwan, 8 in China and 5 in South Korea.
Cover of latest Kazufumi Shiraishi novel, Hikari no nai umi (The Lightless Sea) published by Shueisha in 2015, to have its foreign translation rights acquired.The Lightless Sea is a novel about a 50 year-old company president at a crossroads in his life, facing retirement, reflecting on his past and the tragically complicated family circumstances that led to him becoming President of the company he leads and the life changing choices he made to get there. An English language synopsis of the book can be accessed here.
Links to English language reviews of the two English language translations, both published by Dalkey Archive Press, can be found below:
Me Against the World
Full Stop
Words without Borders
The Japan Times
The Complete Review
Japan Society of UK
Metropolis
Rain Taxi
Ohio State University
Midwest Book Review
The Part of Me That Isn’t Broken Inside
The Complete Review
The Japan Times
RTE
About Red Circle:Red Circle Authors Limited is a specialist publishing and communications company that conducts bespoke projects on behalf of a carefully selected and curated group of leading Japanese authors. Red Circle showcases Japan’s best creative writing. For more information on Red Circle, Japanese literature, and Red Circle authors please visit: www.redcircleauthors.com.-
About Kazufumi Shiraishi:Kazufumi Shiraishi had a successful career, spanning two decades, as a journalists working for one of Japan's highest profile monthly magazines, Bungeishinju, before following in the steps of his father and twin brother becoming a full time author. He is a deeply thoughtful author who writes about love, life and the human condition and is unique in being the only Japanese author to follow in his father’s footsteps by winning the same major Japanese literary prize.
