Advertisement
Advertisement

Asian publishers slow to find a following at Frankfurt

The international success of Natsuo Kirino's novel Out ignited interest in Japanese literature at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week - but the rest of Asia's publishers were unable to capitalise.

More than 15,000 copies of the thriller - about four women who leave their grinding factory jobs when one of them strangles her abusive husband - sold out when the English translation was released in Europe last year by the Japanese publisher Kodansha.

Rights for the paperback edition were quickly bought by Vintage and released in Britain last month.

Kodansha's foreign rights manager, Ayako Akaogi, came to the world's biggest publishing event touting a translation of Miyuki Miyabe's mystery novel Shadow Family and The Lone Samurai, William Scott Wilson's biography of author, philosopher and swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

'The success of Out has generated a lot of interest in Japanese literature,' says Akaogi. 'A lot more books are ready for translation.'

Although that sort of success lit celebratory cigars at the Frankfurter Hof (the hotel of choice for literati after hours), the rest of Asia's publishers were wary of bringing their literature to market.

Asian publishing continued an inexorable, though gradual, rise at the fair, according to exhibitors. Frank Jiang, rights manager for mainland publisher New World Press, says international publishers are most interested in books on Chinese history, language, culture, business and cooking.

'It's surprisingly much better than last year,' Jiang says.

International interest in China and Japan is beginning to benefit Southeast Asia, says Johnson Lee, director of Singapore's Market Asia Distributors.

'China and Japan overshadowed the rest of the region for a long time,' he says. 'But this year the interest is spreading a little.'

Most of Lee's offerings were on language, business and cooking. But their popularity has encouraged him to add fiction and literary non-fiction.

'I have to consider more literature next year,' he says. 'It's costly, but it's also a good way to promote Asian culture.'

Post