Search results for ""Author Riku Onda""

Riku Onda (Author) Riku Onda is a No.1 bestselling author in Japan. She grew up in Sendai and attended Waseda University, where she played the alto saxophone in a student band. A book lover from an early age, she left an office job to try her hand at writing. In 1991, Onda won an award with her first novel, and became a full-time writer soon after. In 2003, after overcoming a fear of flying, she visited the UK and Ireland, and later lived in South America, where she reported for NHK television on Mayan and Incan culture. As her father was a music enthusiast, Onda grew up listening to classical music and played the piano from a young age, later discovering Western rock and jazz She is the first writer to be awarded the Japan Booksellers Award twice. In 2017, her novel Honeybees and Distant Thunder was awarded both the Naoki Prize and the Japan Booksellers' Award, the first time a novel has won both. It became an instant No. 1 bestseller in Japan, going o

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From the author of The Aosawa Murders, one of the NYT Notable Books of 2020. The WSJ commented: "Part psychological thriller, part murder mystery-it is audacious in conception and brilliant in execution." The Globe and Mail said the book was "emerging as one of the most praised novels of the year." Set in a Tokyo flat over the course of one night, Aki and Hiro spend one last night together before going their separate ways. Each believes the other to be a murderer and is determined to extract a confession before the night is over. Who has been killed and why? Which one is the killer? In an intense battle of wills over the course of a night, the true nature of the pair's relationship and the chain of events leading up to this night are gradually revealed in this gripping psychological thriller that keeps the reader in suspense to the very end. The thriller--buried in a literary whodunit--explores the mysteries of romantic love, memory and attaining self-knowledge. Like the best Japanese crime writing, it is an unflinching foray into the darker recesses of the soul, quietly suspenseful and elegantly constructed.

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The Night Circus meets Lonely Castle in the Mirror in this multi-award-winning Japanese bestseller, available finally in an English translation by Philip Gabriel, a translator of Murakami- AN FT BEST SUMMER READ 2023- OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD IN JAPAN- WINNER OF THE NAOKI PRIZE AND THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS' AWARD- A MAJOR MOVIE RELEASE IN JAPAN'A thrilling and often nail-biting depiction of music, friendship, and personal demons' OBSERVER'Propulsive and poetic' KIRKUS______________________Welcome to a magical world of music, friendship and rivalry ...In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three friends will experience some of the most joyous - and painful - moments of their lives.Aya was a piano genius, until she ran away from the stage and vanished; will the tall and talented Makun bring her back?Or will it be child of nature, Jin, a pianist without a piano, who carries the sound of his father's bees wherever he goes?Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?Tender, cruel, compelling, HONEYBEES AND DISTANT THUNDER is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry. Most of all, it shows how three young people reconcile with the highs and lows of what it means to truly be a friend._____________Japanese readers love HONEYBEES AND DISTANT THUNDER:- 'The novel is a masterpiece' 5 stars*****'- 'Each contestant was wonderfully drawn, and I felt very moved' 5 stars*****- 'I felt like I was right there, and there were scenes that brought me to tears' 5 stars*****- 'This is a beyond a reading experience. It felt like some sixth sense was at work. Wonderful' 5 stars*****

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On a stormy summer day the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. But the youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. The police are convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako' and witness to the discovery of the murders. The truth is revealed through a skilful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbours, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.

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