 | Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £5.00 / Used from: £3.02 Haruki Murakami (Japan's most famous novelist)'s most widely praised novel. 60s Japan and a tale of Japanese mental illness and love. Beautiful prose and evocative story. Might even make you cry.
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 | Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £5.56 / Used from: £2.45 Once you've read the above and you're hankering for more Murakami try this. Weirder than NW but no less beautiful and strange - reveals alot of Japanese sensibilites and psychology.
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 | The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £6.26 / Used from: £4.00 Still with Murakami? - then try his Magnum Opus - the enormous 800 page Wind up bird. Completely weird quest to find a cat that becomes a reaffirming of life. extremely out there.
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 | The Tales of the Otori Trilogy: "Across the Nightingale Floor" , "Grass for His Pillow" , "Brilliance of the Moon"
Buy used from: £11.10 utterly brilliant and addictive samurai fiction - aimed at teens - but very complex and interesting. one of my favourite series ever. the greatest fiction samurai tale ive read.
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 | The Harsh Cry of the Heron by Lian Hearn
Buy new: £5.19 / Used from: £1.30 the 4th part in the series. this one is awesome too - about 15years later and covers the childrens lives. oozing samurai, ninja and magic this series is something else.
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 | Heaven's Net is Wide by Lian Hearn
Buy used from: £7.69 the last of the otori books - this is a prequel that reveals the legendary events the series is based on. atmospheric and satisfying this series is a must for all lovers of anything Japanese.
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 | Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
Buy new: £14.08 / Used from: £10.26 the amazing 'real but fictionalized' story of Miyamoto Musashi - the greatest swordsman who ever lived. what makes it so facinating is the fact it is based on real events. so informative.
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 | Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £6.98 / Used from: £3.27 Murakami's factual modern Japanese psychology experiment. the Tokyo Gas attack interviews reveal so much about how the Japanese think and are evocative and harrowing in droves.
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 | Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £0.01 the most wonderful account of Geisha life ever to be printed in English. Dont listen to the haters - just allow yourself to be captured by the characters and amazing world. the story is gripping too.
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 | Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka
Buy new: £6.39 / Used from: £0.01 still reading this - utterly addictive samurai fiction - with amazing realism and a gripping political plot.
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 | Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell
Buy new: £6.95 / Used from: £2.17 its 1100 pages long and utterly engrossing throughout. westerners encroach on Japanese shores in samurai times and melodramatic havoc. quite old styled and adult but an amazing read.
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 | Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £0.01 evocative ghostly historical novel about a fishing village that loot wrecked ships. Very short - but will leave an awesome impression
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 | Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Buy new: £5.63 / Used from: £3.13 Award winning and famous tale of a mountain Geisha and her wealthy lover. tragic and beautiful.
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 | The Braided Path: Weavers Of Saramyr, The Skein Of Lament, The Ascendancy Veil (Gollancz S.F.) by Chris Wooding
Buy new: £10.49 / Used from: £5.95 lastly - a fantasy not of Japan but with a distinct oriental flavour - if you like stuff from japan you are likely to enjoy this epic fantasy.
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