Japanese Literary Awards

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Novel Grand Award のべるたいしょう

Edition 50 (2019)

Novel

Winners

3 people
猫田佐文 ねこた さぶん grand prize

How to Get a Shut-In Out of the House follows Toshiharu Kageyama, who has spent years unable to leave his room, until a maid from a professional team arrives to draw him outside. With humor and felt immediacy, it faces the difficulty of living.

It tenderly depicts the time it takes to step beyond the door of a room.

304 pages
light literary fictionsocial withdrawalrenewalmaiddifficulty living
森りん もり りん honorable mention

Writing Love is a historical romance about Faith, a girl raised in loneliness and poverty who becomes a maid in an aristocratic household. As she learns to read and write, she awakens to love and self-expression across a class divide.

Learning letters brings the girl love and a voice of her own.

304 pages
romanceperiod settingclass differenceliteracygrowth
喜咲冬子 きさき ふゆこ honorable mention

The Wandering Noble Consort, or Queen Beyond the Frontier is a Chinese-style historical romance set between court and borderlands. It follows a woman buffeted by politics as she tries to choose her own way of living.

Beyond the court, a wandering consort learns another meaning of queenship.

304 pages
Chinese-style settinghistorical romancecourtfrontierwomanhood