Rie Qudan

The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon. A propulsive, prophetic novel about the beauty of language and the nature of identity in the age of AI. Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of a radical sympathy toward criminals has become the norm - and a grand skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house wrongdoers in compassionate...

In Schoolgirl, a wealthy housewife, dogged by ennui, struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, who turns to YouTube to vent her frustration with the climate crisis and muse about her day-to-day life in Tokyo. Through the fog of generational tension and unresolved ethics, mother and daughter find a shared connection in Osamu Dazai's 1939 novella Schoolgirl. In Bad Music,...