(Quick link to the book on Amazon)
For several years now I have been debating when to release a print media book, and earlier this year I finally decided it was time to do it. We’ve received requests for print versions of several of our books, but after taking various factors into account it was a pretty easy decision to make a print book using our short stories of Hayashi Fumiko (林芙美子), a prominent figure in 20th century women’s literature for which we had previously published two e-books. One of the reasons is that frankly these are some of my favorite stories, both to translate and to read.
In addition to including all the stories from “Days & Nights” and “Downfall and Other Stories” (put through another few editing iterations), I decided to translate another story of hers that I just stumbled upon recently, “The Tryst”. I think the title says enough about what this story is about, but I really enjoyed how Hayashi Fumiko depicted the difficult relationship faced by the main characters. For the time being, this story will only be available in this print version, and as far as I know this story has not been translated to English before. (Note: the previously released e-book titled “Days & Nights” currently only contains three stories, not the full set contained in this new print media collection.)
I liked the “Days & Nights” name so much that I decided to use it for the print version, but added the subtitle “Stories of classic Japanese women’s literature” to clearly differentiate this new collection. All in all, there are nine total stories across a variety of genres, including a satirical story and a children’s tale in what is, for the most part, a set of pretty emotionally heavy stories.
I would like to thank Kaimai Mizuhiro and Takamasa Kuribayashi for helping verifying the meaning of the original text in a few places, as well as Jim Miles for helping with proofreading.
I am planning on writing a detailed article about my first experience making a print book, but suffice to say things went (mostly) smoothly, and overall I am really proud of the result––not just as my first print media book, but as the first new release under my newly formed publishing company, Arigatai Books.
If you are interested in Japanese literature, women’s literature, or just want to help support future releases by us, please consider checking it out. For the time being it is priced at only $9.99.
(Note: this book is only in English. If you are looking for some books to practice Japanese reading comprehension, please check out my bilingual fairy tale series.)