100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide Delivery πŸš€ Thank you for supporting our 100% NZ-owned store ❀️

The Last Children of Tokyo

3.41 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 13,298 ratings, 1,983 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada, we encounter a dystopian world where Japan is isolated and struggling with the aftereffects of environmental and societal collapse. The story follows an elderly man, Yoshiro, and his sickly grandson, Mumei, exploring their tender relationship against a backdrop of impending doom. As the younger generation weakens, the book reflects on themes of resilience, hope, and the uncertain future of humanity.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate a thought-provoking narrative that explores themes of environmental change and its impact on future generations. Set in a dystopian world, the story invites readers to contemplate human resilience, generational differences, and the deep connections between people as society grapples with a shifting landscape.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, set in a future where the old live almost-forever and children's lives are all too brief.

In a near-future where the old live almost-forever and the rest die young, an elderly man fights to keep his beloved great-grandson alive

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Yoshiro celebrated his hundredth birthday many years ago, but every morning before work he still goes running in the park with his rent-a-dog. He is one of the many aged-elderly in Japan, and he might, he thinks, live forever.

Life for Yoshiro isn't as simple as it used to be. Pollution and natural disasters have scarred the face of the Earth, and even common foods are hard to come by. Still, Yoshiro's only real worry is the future of his great-grandson Mumei, who, like other children of his generation, was born frail and grey-haired, old before he was ever young.

As daily life in Tokyo grows harder, a secretive organisation embarks on an audacious plan to find a cure for the children of Japanβ€”might Yoshiro's great-grandson, Mumei, be the key?

A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, The Last Children of Tokyo is a delicate glimpse of our future from one of Japan's most celebrated writers.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

i>The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada is lauded as a unique blend of eco-terror, family drama, and speculative fiction, combining humour with a stark portrayal of a neo-isolationist Japan. It is celebrated for its beauty and nuanced language that exquisitely balances gentle and sharp themes while exploring humanity's core amidst imminent disaster. The book navigates through a world that mixes ancient beliefs with modern politics and is praised for its poetic, melancholic, and tender prose, creating a convincing, imaginative narrative.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781846276705

Publisher: Granta Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 June 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Granta Books

Contributors:

  • Translated by Margaret Mitsutani

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 122g

Pages: 144

About the Author

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960 and moved to Germany in 1982. She writes in Japanese and German, and her work has been awarded the most prestigious literary prizes in both countries, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Kleist Prize, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Goethe Medal. She is the author of stories, poems, plays, essays, and novels, including Memoirs of a Polar Bear, published by Portobello Books in 2017.

Also by Yoko Tawada

View all
  • Exophony
    Tawada's strange, exquisite book toys with ideas of language, identity and what it means to own someone else's story or one's own The New Yorker on Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear. Are you formed by your mother tongue? How might the world unfold if you stepped outside of its rhythms? In this playful and daring interrogation of language, the...
    Paperback
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Naked Eye
    A young Vietnamese woman is invited to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to speak at an International Youth Conference in East Berlin. On her arrival, as she is preparing to present her paper in Russian on 'Vietnam as a Victim of American Imperialism', she is abruptly kidnapped and taken to a small town on the western side of the...
    Hardback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Spontaneous Acts
    The highly anticipated new novel from award-winning, critically acclaimed novelist Yoko Tawada. Patrik is a literary researcher living in Berlin, a city just coming back to life after lockdown. Though his beloved opera houses are open again, Patrik cannot leave the house and hardly manages to get out of bed. He is supposed to give a paper at a conference...
    Paperback
    $3499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Suggested in the Stars
    Hiruko, from the now vanished archipelago somewhere between China and Polynesia, and her band of friends have searched in vain for someone who speaks her native language. They finally track down Susanoo, a sushi chef from the same nation, but there's a problem β€” he has lost the power of speech. As the companions set out to help Susanoo regain...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Three Streets
    The always astonishing Yoko Tawada here takes a walk on the supernatural side of the street. In Kollwitzstrasse, as the narrator muses on former East Berlin's new bourgeois health food stores, so popular with the wealthy young people, a ghost boy begs her to buy him the old-fashioned sweets he craves. She worries that sugar's still sugarβ€”but why lecture him,...
    Hardback
    $3399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Archipelago of the Sun
    In this concluding volume, intrepid Hiruko and her band of friends embark on a sea voyage in search of Hiruko's lost island homeland β€” the Land of Sushi. The boat carrying the companions strikes east from Copenhagen across the Baltic Sea, but as it docks in coastal ports along the route, an array of mysterious characters boards the vessel. Deeply...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Facing the Bridge
    Amo, an African kidnapped to Europe as a boy, and Tamao, a Japanese exchange student in Germany, live in different countries but are being followed by the same shadow; Kazuko, a young professional tourist, is lured to Vietnam by a mysterious postcard; on the Canary Islands, a nameless translator battles a banana grove and a series of Saint Georges... These...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Scattered All Over the Earth
    From the author of The Last Children of Tokyo A mind-expanding, cheerfully dystopian novel about friendship, difference, and what it means to belong, by a National Book Award-winning novelist. Welcome to the not-too-distant future. Japan, having vanished into the sea, is now remembered as "the land of sushi." Hiruko, a former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Bridegroom Was a Dog
    A tale of passion and romance between a Japanese schoolteacher and a doglike man, from the prize-winning author of The Last Children of Tokyo. Mitsuko, a schoolteacher at the Kitamura school, inspires both rumour and curiosity in the parents of her students because of her unconventional mannerβ€”not least when she tells the children the fable of a princess whose hand...
    Hardback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β€” Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β€” Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β€” Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β€” Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β€” Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Mistake
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Legacy
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from the Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Legacy now for the much-anticipated answer to the question: Where are they now? Four stories. Four couples. Three years of real life after graduation . . . A wedding....
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.