About the Translator
Cathy Hirano was born in Canada and has lived in Japan since 1978. When she was growing up, her favorite books were The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Earthsea series, and The Lord of the Rings. Also available in English are her award-winning translations of The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto, which won the Batchelder Award for children’s literature in translation, and Moribito I: Guardian of the Spirit and Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi.
HAIKASORU
THE FUTURE IS JAPANESE
SUMMER, FIREWORKS, AND MY CORPSE BY OTSUICHI
Two short novels by the Shirley Jackson Award–nominated author, including the title story and Black Fairy Tale, plus a bonus short story. Summer is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide her body, she tells us the story—from the point of view of her dead body—of the children’s attempt to get away with murder. Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, but what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous deceased owner.
ROCKET GIRLS BY HOUSUKE NOJIRI
Yukari Morita is a high school girl on a quest to find her missing father. While searching for him in the Solomon Islands, she receives the offer of a lifetime—she’ll get the help she needs to find her father, and all she need do in return is become the world’s youngest, lightest astronaut. Yukari and her sister Matsuri, both petite, are the perfect crew for the Solomon Space Association’s launches, or will be once they complete their rigorous and sometimes dangerous training.
DRAGON SWORD AND WIND CHILD BY NORIKO OGIWARA
The forces of the God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have waged a ruthless war across the land of Toyoashihara for generations. But for fifteen-year-old Saya, the war is far away and unimportant—until the day she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden and a princess of the Children of the Dark. Raised to love the Light and detest the Dark, Saya must come to terms with her heritage even as she tumbles into the very heart of the conflict that is destroying her country. The armies of the Light and Dark both seek to claim her, for she is the only mortal who can awaken the legendary Dragon Sword, the fearsome weapon destined to bring an end to the war.
THE OUROBOROS WAVE BY JYOUJI HAYASHI
Ninety years from now, a satellite detects a nearby black hole scientists dub Kali for the Hindu goddess of destruction. As human society expands to Mars and beyond, the generations-long project to harness the power of the black hole pits the retrograde humans of Earth against the imminently rational men and women of the Artificial Accretion Disk Development association. While conflicts simmer, a mystery within Kali itself tests the limits of intelligence— that of both human and machine.
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Dragon Sword and Wind Child Page 32