Authors: Mishima, Yukio
Translated by: Jomantienė, Irena
Translated from: English
Published on: 2004

“Confessions of a Mask” is a debut work of a Japanese author Yukio Mishima, which shocked Japanese society with its’ openness, sexuality, dramatic qualities and a topic which wasn’t commonly discussed – homosexuality which became the main reason the novel became so popular and acclaimed by critics. “Confessions of a Mask” is still one of the best-known works by Yukio Mishima in Japan and all over the world. The story is told from the first person‘s point of view. The author More

Authors: Akutagava, Riunoskė

The story of the famous Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (1892 – 1927) “Kappa” is of fantasy genre. But that fantasy is as real as France’s penguins or Swift’s lilliputs. The Country of Kappa is similar and, at the same time, is different to Japan. Kappa (Japanese old folk characters, mermans) have their own country, financial attributes, culture, religion, and their own police. Everything is like in Japan. But there is no unemployment. The unemployed ones are simply More

Authors: Murakami, Haruki
Translated by: Saukaitytė, Dalia, Daškus, Marius, Dyke, Milda, Jomantienė, Irena
Translated from: English
Published on: 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013

A Wild Sheep chase is the third of so called Trilogy of the Rat. It is a very contraversial and surrealistic story that is full of unexplained mysteries. At first, there is an ordinary daily life of divorsed 30 year old man, that is nothing special at all. Suddenly, everything messes up. There shows up a woman with magically seductive ears, also, a friend from the past. That friend sends him a picture of a sheep, actually, lots of sheeps in the mountains road valley, one of the sheeps was special. The picture was supposed to be used for the commercial of one client, also, it makes one of the biggest Japan\’s bussines mans out of his mind. After all of that, the professor which is crazy about sheeps shows up. Finally in the valley of Hokaido mountains appears a Sheepman. Everything is covered by some kind of maniacal idea of ruling the world. More

Authors: Ōe, Kenzaburō
Translated by: Švambarytė, Dalia

The novel is replete with imagery of death, decay and sex. Written in 1964, the novel is dark, deeply personal, and semi-autobiographical. It tells the story of Bird, a man who must come to terms with the birth of his mentally disabled son.

Bird’s son, like Ōe’s, was born with a brain hernia. Bird tries to escape his responsibility for the child and his crumbling relationship with his wife – turning to alcohol and an old girlfriend. Bird is fired from his job teaching at a cram school in the process. He half attempts to kill the child, albeit indirectly, and is forced to make a decision as to whether or not he wants to keep the child.

Authors: Ishiguro, Kazuo
Translated by: Žukaitė, Mėta
Translated from: English
Published on: 2000

“..for a great many people, the evening is the most enjoyable part of the day. Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so, much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.” – with these words, in last pages of Kazuo Ishiguro novel “The Remains of the Day” the main character, an elderly English butler named Stevens, tries to encourage himself to turn over a new leaf and leave his past More

Authors: (Lietuvių) Dai Sijie
Translated by: (Lietuvių) Agnė Ranonytė
Translated from: (Lietuvių) Prancūzų k.
Published on: (Lietuvių) 2000

Dai Sijie (born 1954) is a famous chinese-french author and director. During the Cultural Revolution he was sent to a reeducation camp. After his return, he finished his studies and got a degree in art history. After some time, he exchanged China to France. Ever since, he lived and created art in France, where he discovered his passion for filmmaking and writing in the first place. He wrote his first novel „Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress“ he wrote in France, but its action took place in rural place in China, called Sichuan, where he, as a young man was sent to reeducate himself. Without these similarities between his life and novel‘s plot, there‘s a fact, that we was a tailor, that leads to believe that he was very influenced by his own life writing his first piece. More

Translated by: Dumčius, Vytautas

A collection of poetry by famous Japanese poets.

Translated by: Dumčius, Vytautas
Translated from: Japanese
Published on: 1999

Nihon no Mukashibanashi (日本の昔話) – old Japanese tales consists of  folk stories and legends talking about heroes and gods from the past. “Japonų pasakos“ (1999) – is the first book of the most popular Japanese folk tales translated into Lithuanian from the original language. This book consists of 32 short and easy to read tales and legends. Many stories are written in a casual way and tell about everyday situations in a very creative and slightly humorous way. Plot sometimes goes in unexpected direction which makes the story interesting to read. Many of the stories are closely connected with agricultural rituals, farm work (rice planting, harvesting), that‘s why it is partly similar to Lithuanian folk stories where seasonal agricultural work plays important part. Overall, diligence and earnestness towards work is probably the most frequently mentioned value: hard working men and sluggard’s life are compared. Latter usually is punished by gods or destiny, but in some stories motive aren‘t clearly displayed. More

Translated by: Žilaitytė, Joana Danutė; Baltuškevičius, Vladas; Baniulis, Julius; Geda, Sigitas; Juškaitis, Jonas; Kajokas, Donaldas; Karčiauskas, Mykolas; Korsakas, Kostas; Mackus, Algimantas; Neimantas, Romualdas; Patackas, Gintaras; Sruoga, Balys

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Authors: Yuan Mei
Translated by: Kajokas, Donaldas
Translated from: Russian
Published on: 1999

‘’What the Master Would not Discuss’’ by Yuan Mei is a rebellion against the system of Confucius, which denies strange things, violence, riots and supernatural creatures. The book contains a lot of stories. Using supernatural topics and characters, telling stories about ghosts, devils and corpses Y. Mei provokes people to get interested into magic. Most of his stories are closely related to the contraposition of life and death. The ghosts of dead people can transform into the human body and seek to punish the culprit. But there are good ghosts too. They observe the life of their relatives, help them or ask for help. More