Read Real Japanese Essays

Read Real Japanese Essays presents eight short works by established writers, including Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto. The essays are in turn humorous, insightful, and biting; all stimulating works that will teach readers much about Japanese writing and will motivate them to read more.

Features:

• Stimulating essays with translations of all the complex passages.
• Japanese-English dictionary at back for quick reference.
• Notes that explain subtleties of nuance, usage, grammar, and culture.
• Bound-in audio CD with narrations performed by a professional actress.
• Profiles of the individual writers that help place the works in context.

About the series:

There is a world of difference between reading Japanese that has been specially designed for students and reading real-world Japanese written for native speakers. The Read Real Japanese series, offering one volume each of essays and fiction, provides the real thing—lively writings by contemporary authors.

Following the form of real Japanese writing, the text in both volumes runs from top to bottom, right to left. As a reading guide, each double-page spread features translations of most sentences or phrases, making it possible to understand the meaning at a glance. Also included is is a Japanese-English dictionary covering all the words appearing in the texts, notes on nuance, usage, grammar, and culture, and an audio CD of narration performed by a professional, native-speaking actress.

For intermediate learners and beyond; in the classroom or car; Read Real Japanese opens a gateway to the pleasures of reading first-rate, original literature by Japanese authors.