Snyder, Stephen 1957-

Ōe and beyond fiction in contemporary Japan ( Book )
12 editions published in 1999 in English and held by 1,156 libraries worldwide

The housekeeper and the professor by Yōko Ogawa ( Book )
4 editions published between 2003 and 2009 in English and held by 1,099 libraries worldwide
"He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem -- ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him. And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor's mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities -- like the Housekeeper's shoe size -- and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away." -- Publisher description.

Out by 夏生 桐野 ( Book )
6 editions published between 2003 and 2005 in English and held by 1,054 libraries worldwide
After strangling her husband, Masako Katori, a middle-aged wife and mother working the night shift at a Tokyo factory, enlists the aid of four co-workers to conceal the crime.

Rivalry : a geisha's tale by Kafū Nagai ( Book )
4 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 802 libraries worldwide
"Rivalry tells a sweeping story in which sexual politics compete with sisterly affection in a world ruled by material transaction. Komayo is a former geisha who, upon the death of her husband, must return to the "world of flower and willow" to escape poverty. A chance encounter with an old patron, Yoshioka, leads to a relationship in which both lovers hope to profit: Yoshioka believes Komayo can restore his lost innocence; Komayo plans to use Yoshioka's patronage to compete in the elaborate music and dance performances staged by her fellow geisha. Yoshioka is eager to ransom Komayo, but as she considers his offer, Komayo falls in love with Segawa, a young actor who promises to turn the talented geisha into the finest dancer in the Shimbashi quarter. Though her feelings for Segawa are genuine, Komayo is eager to use her lover's position to become the lead performer among her peers. Her ambition even tempts her to take on a third patron known only as the "Sea Monster" ... Though she finds herself at the pinnacle of a glittering career, Komayo nevertheless becomes the target of a bitter rivalry between her three lovers that leaves her both thrilled and exhausted, both brutalized and redeemed. Kafu's compelling tale takes readers from the intimate corners of the geisha house to the back rooms of assignation, from the dressing areas of the great kabuki theaters to the lonely country villa of a theater critic and connoisseur of Shimbashi women. His lush depictions of architecture and costumes and his incisive descriptions of urban life and individual motive provide a vivid backdrop for Komayo's struggle-one woman's absorbing quest to find fame, affection, and financial security in the refined but ruthless theater of Shimbashi."--Publisher's description.

On parole by Akira Yoshimura ( Book )
4 editions published between 1999 and 2000 in English and held by 625 libraries worldwide
A man murders his wife, wounds her lover, and sets the lover's home-with the lover's mother in it-on fire. Sixteen years later, 50-year-old Shiro Kikutani, a former high-school teacher serving a life sentence for this crime, is released. In jail, he had thought of nothing but freedom. His release, however, creates a series of obstacles for which he is not prepared. While he continually examines his conscience, he feels no remorse. On parole, he slowly begins to lead a normal life, and that life seems livable, until his new wife pressures him to express remorse he does not feel.Once again, Yoshimura has written a finely detailed, subtle, powerful story that explores the fragile life of a murderer and the quality of freedom in an unforgiving society. 5-5/16 X 8.

The diving pool : three novellas by Yōko Ogawa ( Book )
3 editions published between 2008 and 2009 in English and held by 545 libraries worldwide
In this crafty, suspenseful hook., each novella is narrated in the listless, emotionally remote voice of a young woman, such as the high schooler of the title story whose infatuation with her foster brother, Jun, prompts her to obsessively observe his diving practice. As the daughter of religious parents who run an orphanage, Aya feels alienated from the workings of the so-called Light House and finds an outlet for her frustration in romantic fantasy about Jun as well as in tormenting--shockingly--an orphan baby. The underhandedly creepy Dormitory is narrated by a Tokyo wife who begins nursing the ailing, armless one-legged manager at her old college dormitory. The manager's increasingly alarming tale of love for one of the renters, now vanished, enthralls the wife. Pregnancy Diary offers a bit of levity, narrated by a young unmarried woman whose rage toward her pregnant sister take the form of cooking her grapefruit jam prepared from fruit treated with a chromosome-altering chemical. Ogawa's tales possess a gnawing, erotic edge.

Remote control by Kōtarō Isaka ( Book )
2 editions published between 2010 and 2011 in English and held by 425 libraries worldwide
Aoyagi, a former delivery-truck driver in the city of Sendai is unemployed-- and now he's the main suspect in the assassination of a newly elected prime minister. As Aoyagi runs, he must negotiate trigger-happy law enforcement while trying to discover why he was set up and who is responsible.

Hotel Iris by Yōko Ogawa ( Book )
1 edition published in 2010 in English and held by 412 libraries worldwide
Young hotel clerk Mari is drawn to a widowed translator suspected of killing his wife, who initiates her into a dark realm of pleasure and pain, a world that she embraces even more than the translator.

Fictions of desire : narrative form in the novels of Nagai Kafū by Stephen Snyder ( Book )
6 editions published in 2000 in English and held by 328 libraries worldwide
Annotation

In pursuit of contemporary East Asian culture ( Book )
2 editions published in 1996 in English and held by 270 libraries worldwide
These critical essays examine various aspects of East Asian culture through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural lens. Analyzing film, television, and visual and literary texts, the contributors reveal the historical conditions as well as the contemporary impulses driving East Asian culture today. By anticipating the geocultural shift to the Asian Pacific Rim in the twenty-first century, this collection serves as both an introduction to contemporary East Asian culture and an exploration of its global context.