Search results for ""Author Shion Miura""

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection. Kohei Araki believes that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years of creating dictionaries, it''s time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime—a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics—whom he swipes from his company''s sales department.Along with an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the words that connect us all.

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Book SynopsisFrom Shion Miura, award-winning author of The Easy Life in Kamusari, comes a spirit-lifting novel about tradition, first love, and ancient lore in a Japanese mountain village. It’s been a year since Yuki Hirano left home—or more precisely, was booted from it—to study forestry in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. Being a woodsman is not the future he imagined, but his name means “courage,” and Yuki hopes to live up to it. He’s adapting to his job and learning constantly. In between, he records local legends—tales pulsing with life, passion, and wondrous gods. Kamusari has other charms as well. One of them is Nao. Yuki’s crush on the only other young single person in the village isn’t a secret. Yet how impressed can she be with someone at least five years younger who makes less money and doesn’t even own a car? More daunting, she’s in love with another man. Finally finding his place among the villagers, a feeling deepened by his crush, Yuki seems headed for a dream life of adventure and camaraderie—and Nao could be the missing piece of that dream.Trade ReviewPraise for The Easy Life in Kamusari “Fans of all ages should enjoy the author’s blend of the traditional and the contemporary…In a battle of Japanese settings, wondrous mountains win big over bustling cities.” —Kirkus Reviews Praise for The Great Passage Winner of an Earphones Award, Fiction “Mastery of words may not result in masterly communication, and a great dictionary, like a love story, is ‘the result of people puzzling over their choices’—a classic tension that has made The Great Passage a prizewinner in Japan, as well as both a successful feature film and an animated television series.” —The New York Times “Swirling with witty enchantment, The Great Passage proves to be, well, utterly great. Readers should be advised to get ready to sigh with delighted satisfaction and awe-inspiring admiration.” —Booklist (starred review) “The Great Passage has a philosophy of thoughtfulness and dedication to words that any reader will understand…Miura’s prose—and Carpenter’s translation—glides along, smooth and precise, with flashes of quiet poetry.” —Metropolis “The Great Passage is interwoven with romantic love stories, but ultimately it is the passion of the characters, their friendship, and their devotion to their task that direct and complete the narrative and turn it from simply a good book to a great one.” —Talia Franks, Three Percent

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Book SynopsisFrom Shion Miura, the award-winning author of The Great Passage, comes a rapturous novel where the contemporary and the traditional meet amid the splendor of Japan’s mountain way of life. Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull. Yuki learns to fell trees and plant saplings. He begins to embrace local festivals, he’s mesmerized by legends of the mountain, and he might be falling in love. In learning to respect the forest on Mt. Kamusari for its majestic qualities and its inexplicable secrets, Yuki starts to appreciate Kamusari’s harmony with nature and its ancient traditions. In this warm and lively coming-of-age story, Miura transports us from the trappings of city life to the trials, mysteries, and delights of a mythical mountain forest.Trade ReviewPraise for The Easy Life in Kamusari “Fans of all ages should enjoy the author’s blend of the traditional and the contemporary.” —Kirkus Reviews “Miura (The Great Passage, 2017) takes readers on a journey with Yuki, a directionless young man, to the remote mountainside villages of Japan where the trees are plentiful, but cell reception is minimal. Miura lovingly depicts the shifting seasons and the challenges they bring to those who work in the forestry industry in Japan’s mountains.” —Booklist “This tender and kaleidoscopic novel centers a young Japanese city boy and his coming-of-age in a remote village.” —Ms. Magazine Praise for The Great Passage Winner of an Earphones Award, Fiction “Mastery of words may not result in masterly communication, and a great dictionary, like a love story, is ‘the result of people puzzling over their choices’—a classic tension that has made The Great Passage a prizewinner in Japan, as well as both a successful feature film and an animated television series.” —The New York Times “Swirling with witty enchantment, The Great Passage proves to be, well, utterly great. Readers should be advised to get ready to sigh with delighted satisfaction and awe-inspiring admiration.” —Booklist (starred review) “The Great Passage has a philosophy of thoughtfulness and dedication to words that any reader will understand…Miura’s prose—and Carpenter’s translation—glides along, smooth and precise, with flashes of quiet poetry.” —Metropolis “The Great Passage is interwoven with romantic love stories, but ultimately it is the passion of the characters, their friendship, and their devotion to their task that direct and complete the narrative and turn it from simply a good book to a great one.” —Talia Franks, Three Percent

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