When the narrator was in eighth grade, aliens arrived on Earth. Having already abandoned language, they cannot communicate with humans, but when they hear a voice — especially a woman's voice — they excrete beautiful stones called "jewels." Fleeing a hometown she despises, the narrator moves to the city and, in exchange for scholarship support, takes a job at an alien shop, reading aloud to the aliens and collecting the jewels they produce. The warmth of her coworker Canaria and a new connection with a kind young man named Ryou-chan color her days, yet her longing for the abandoned hometown only grows. A cruel mother, a grandmother who raised her, bullying classmates, a neighbor woman called Noro-chan — these memories will not let go. When the narrator learns of Noro-chan's death and returns home, she realizes that the city too was never truly the place she yearned for. The next day, she accepts the aliens' invitation to emigrate to their world.

A piercing memoir in search of a place to call home.

Yusuke Ariga, manager of a local supermarket, discovers that his only daughter Kayoko is secretly the magical girl heroine "Kaleid Mercy", fighting against the alien invaders known as "Dislanders". Determined to protect her, he boards the alien spacecraft to negotiate a ceasefire—only to uncover the shocking truth about the Dislanders' true nature. This SF comedy blends the conventions of the hero genre with themes of parental love and the power of dialogue, winning the 20th Shosetsu Gendai Long-Form Newcomer Award.

Mercy, far stronger than any villain, quickly became the people's hero. But when her father discovers the truth, he takes matters into his own hands.

Shinonome, a new employee at C.F.C., a company of funeral professionals, is assigned to the Second Section, a specialized team dedicated to restoring badly damaged remains from accidents, crimes, and suicides. Five morticians, each carrying their own profound grief, devote themselves fully to returning the deceased to a semblance of their former appearance. Confronting death day after day, asking why lives were taken and how survivors can carry on, the team slowly discovers a faint light by which to live tomorrow.

"No matter how hard you think, no matter how hard you search, you will never find the reason a person died."

One summer night, college student Wakaume is called out to on his way home from a test of courage with friends. "Long time no see, Ume-chan" — it was the voice of his first love Koume, who was supposed to be dead, now inhabiting the body of his friend. Working part-time jobs, attending summer festivals, going on dates — Wakaume and Koume fulfill one small wish after another, as if making up for lost time. Knowing she must eventually return the body, yet unable to stop... The miracle born from a simple wish of "I want to see you again" is not just one. A pure time-limit love story.

"I wonder how long I can borrow this body."

This award-winning work was published under the retitled Snow-Crossing Black Thrush. In Ōshū, where suppression of Christianity is advancing, a ninja who uses mimicry as a weapon enters a political conspiracy.

A ninja who uses mimicry as a weapon enters a conspiracy in snowbound Ōshū.

A coming-of-age novel centered on Wakana and the shifting atmosphere of a school club and her relationships with her peers in the run-up to graduation.

The pain and brilliance of girls who want to become special before graduation.

Recently divorced Chiaki meets Nagi Hioki at a cemetery office and, through a mysterious morning glory seed, reconsiders the misalignments in her past and her heart.

A single seed gently realigns the heart.

A mother living in a mountain town rebuilds her relationship with her son after he takes up rap battles.

A son's rap battles give mother and child a chance to speak to each other again.

A boy who has forgotten a childhood friend killed in an accident confronts memory and loss as he finds a way forward.

The memory of a childhood friend he has forgotten leads a boy into a time of loss and renewal.

A coming-of-age novel about a boy who sees colors in sounds, numbers, and people, and expands his world through a girl he meets in the music room.

A girl he meets in the music room gradually opens up the color-filled world of a boy.

A historical novel about the rise and fall of shogi households in the Edo period, and the pride and growth of young players.

In Edo's shogi world, young players face contests on the board with their pride at stake.

A high-school student who closes off his heart after his father's death finds renewal through meeting a younger student who begs for jellyfish.

After losing his father, a boy begins to look at the world again through a younger student's plea for jellyfish.

A socially conscious novel about coexistence, migration, and conformity, centered on an extraterrestrial being known as Planetary Refugee X.

Faced with a neighbor from another planet, people are forced to ask what it means to live together.

A crime novel in which Nakamura, a death-row inmate, recounts his life with a man bound to him by fate as he moves toward violence.

A death-row inmate's account traces a path to ruin marked by betrayal and revenge.

In winter in Nagano, an unknown terror rises around a family who have bought a highly insulated 'magic house'.

In wintery Nagano, a family confronts an unknown terror lurking in their new home.

Set in Yoshiwara in Edo during the Tenmei era, this demon-slaying action tale follows a woman who is also an oiran.

An oiran's other face turns toward demons hidden in Yoshiwara.

A period comedy in which a Shinsengumi member and a former geisha form a manzai duo and stir up trouble on the yose stage.

A Shinsengumi member and a former geisha create laughter and turmoil on the yose stage.

A contemporary novel about a temporary nurse living in an internet café, pushed to her limits between patients and her lover.

A nurse living in an internet café is driven into a corner between her patients and her lover.

An Edo-period tale of human feeling in which Momo, who teaches arithmetic at a terakoya school, works with a young man eager to resume learning and gifted children.

At a terakoya school, Momo offers people seeking learning both arithmetic and strength for life.

A young pig farmer and a childhood friend who returns after setbacks in Tokyo try to market Tonko, a piglet that can speak.

Tonko, a talking piglet, and two young men returned to their hometown try to change their village.

An unconventional coming-of-age novel in which an amnesiac man and a female stripper are drawn into a serious shogi match.

An amnesiac man and a dancer face a turning point in life across a shogi board.

A historical novel set in the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period, where a young tomb robber called Little Whirlwind seeks advancement through a magnificent zither.

Ambition surrounding a single zither sets the people of Wei in motion.

A family novel about an unusual shared life among 34-year-old Aya, 54-year-old Itō, and Aya's father after he leaves home.

Three people of different generations and circumstances gradually become a family under one roof.

A historical novel in which Tōbei, a gunsmith in Kunimoto village on Lake Biwa, seeks to complete a pneumatic gun that does not use fire.

A gunsmith's quest for a fireless gun sets the village's history in motion.

A lively coming-of-age story where an afro-haired transfer student joins a struggling Tokyo high-school baseball team, bringing youth and romance together.

A transfer student joins a struggling baseball club and changes one summer for its members.

In the early Edo period, a sword-fighting adventure follows young samurai as they enter a cycle of bloodshed in a city shaken by a series of street attacks.

In an Edo shaken by street attacks, young samurai cross blades.

A novel about a man who flees an impoverished northeastern village in early Shōwa Japan and struggles to survive amid discrimination and violence.

Amid harsh nature and human cruelty, a man searches for a way to survive.

Akiba, a newspaper reporter transferred from the police beat to the culture desk, is assigned to cover shogi. His path crosses with that of Nobushige Sanada, a man of the same age making a last attempt to become a professional player, in this novel of setbacks and renewal.

A reporter covering shogi and a man striving to become a professional player search for their next move in life.

A Three Kingdoms novel that begins when the young Chen Gong loses the woman he loves to Dong Zhuo and encounters Cao Cao.

To reclaim the woman taken from him, the young Chen Gong steps into an age of turmoil alongside Cao Cao.

In an isolated place where legends remain of women who vanished into the mountains, a woman begins living with an enigmatic man. This novel builds an atmosphere of steadily mounting unease.

In a mountain town haunted by the Yama-hime legend, a man's secrets and the mystery of vanished women come to the surface.

A striking debut set in Hell, where a fallen courtesan follows Enma's orders while holding fast to her wish to become a spider.

A courtesan patrols Hell and keeps a diary at Enma's command, all the while wishing to become a spider.

Set in the Kansei era of Edo, this debut novel portrays the daily life and human ties of a young couple who run Nazunaya, a seedling shop, through flowers and trade.

In an Edo seedling shop sustained by flowers and trade, the life of a young couple unfolds.

Set at the Morita-za kabuki theatre in Edo, this historical novel follows young actor Umemura Hamaji after a morning-glory plant entrusted to him draws him into a series of troubles.

A strange morning glory placed in Hamaji's care is taken to a flower show, setting off a theft and a mystery in Edo's theatre world.

A coming-of-age ensemble drama portraying the hidden reality of a boy who sleeps and eats at Tokyo Station amid the turmoil of postwar Japan.

A coming-of-age ensemble drama following a boy striving to survive around Tokyo Station in postwar Japan.

Hinako, a trading-company office worker who spends her weekends in Roppongi, takes a job to finance a working holiday. The choice draws her into the underworld and sends her fleeing overseas in this turbulent coming-of-age novel.

With love and loyalty in her heart, an office worker sets off on a working holiday abroad.

Set in Genroku-era Edo, this historical novel follows the masterless Arai Denzō, later known as Arai Hakuseki, after an aide to shogun Tsunayoshi asks him to serve as a guard and draws him into a political conspiracy. It portrays the young Hakuseki, accomplished in both scholarship and swordsmanship, as he decides whom to serve and how to use his abilities.

In an Edo rife with conspiracy, the young Arai Hakuseki takes up the sword he had set aside and seeks the master he should serve.