If you have only time for one story, let it be for Hiromi Kawakami’s ‘Sea Horse’, gloriously translated by Ted Goossen. No surprise about this being the opening piece. Best thing I’ve ever read from Hiromi Kawakami. She truly peaks when she doesn’t write lengthy novels about young women pining over their elderly sensei(s). Ocean vibes, magical realism alluding to the soul-crushing urban life overwhelming with patriarchal dominance.

The entire collection is so fun to read (even though Murakami’s essay was sadly, a let down; I wish it wasn’t, but it truly was). It reminded me of the joys of reading magazines (something I’ve not done much of lately). Adore how it was all so structured/arranged beautifully and carefully – accompanied by fab illustrations. Sam Bett? Polly Barton? It’s hard not to like. The later part of the collection is especially spectacular if you appreciate the art of creative translation.

In terms of the simple and pure enjoyment of reading Japanese literature, if you crave for more than just Murakami, well, this is certainly the perfect, well-curated selection to indulge in. Poetry, essays, and stories. Whatever you’re in the mood for. I want to read it all over and over again.

Incredible writing, so many treats and gifts to savour and them explore in longer novels. I am a huge fan of Monkey and the former Monkey Business and this is a great way to get into japlit.

Some of the stories were fun to read, but others were a bit boring, and I felt that they went nowhere. The difference between the authors was too recognizable with the style they chose and the stories they told.
I tried to enjoy this book, and I love to read Japanese authors, but this book wasn't for me, unfortunately.

An interesting collection of new writing from Japan from the editors of the magazine, Monkey. These are loosely grouped together under the title of 'travel', although this is very widely interpreted in the writing. This is a mixture of genres and styles, prose and poetry and some colour illustrations which separate the different sections of the book. It's quite long and has a huge amount of work in it. As such, some of it was absolutely fascinating to me and some of it wasn't my cup of tea. You would totally expect this in a work of this kind, to be fair. It's an exploration of what's out there, authors to bookmark, works to look for, particularly in the section which is dedicated to segments of works in progress and excerpts from larger pieces. It's fantastic to see so much creativity and such a range of work and not just authors like Murakami or poets who write Haiku, which is what Japanese literature is perhaps most famous for from a glance through Western eyes.

I have seen this magazine once in a while on Instagram, but didn*t know it was still alive and well. The more delighted I was discovering this on Netgalley! As a lover of Japanese fiction, I just HAD to read this.

This 2nd issue was a very eclectic collection of short stories, poetry, a comic and even a Noh play. Included are well-known authors and novelists, and a few ones I didn't already know.

If oyu enjoy Japanese literature, go ahead and do yourself the favor of reading this.

Thanks to the editor and NetGalley for the copy.
This was a first read from the Monkey journal for me. I really enjoyed the large variety of texts offered. From a first connection with haiku to the escapism provided by the short stories. Most of all, I enjoyed reading Hiromi Kawakami's Sea Horse and totally loved the setting of Eric McCormack's The Trail. The art featured throughout the magazine was a nice addition and I wish I could have seen it in color instead of black and white on my ebook reader.

This book is really stunning, I mean the stories and the artwork is just amazing. Although I didn't really understand what all stories are about I still enjoyed it a lot. I really liked most of the stories, they are diverse and deep, all the different writing styles... Have I mentioned the artwork? STUNNING.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Stone Bridge Press for this eARC.

What a lovely, refreshing read. A mix of poetry, non-fiction and short fiction in translation, this was beautifully laid out, with wonderful illustrations. So much eye and brain candy in one volume.

Some of my favourite reads:

Hell, by Kikuko Tsumura
The Overcoat, a graphic story by Satoshi Kitamura
Whale Leg, by Laird Hunt
The Trail, by Eric McCormack (looking forward to reading the novel)
Itō Goes On A Journey, Making a Pilgrimage to Yuda Hot Springs, by Hiromi Itō.
I especially enjoyed the remarks from translators at the end of the volume, about the words and ideas they find hard to translate into English.

Well worth a read.

Rated: 7/10.

"MONKEY - New Writing from Japan" is a deliciously eclectic collection. The authors range from historically famous to modern favorites to relative newcomers. The editors describe this anthology with phrases such as "Contemporary Japanese Fiction in Translation" ... "from innovative Japanese authors and outstanding translators." I found "MONKEY" to be somewhat more than this. It is an inclusive collection of writing that has some connection to Japan including fiction, essays, poetry, etc. Much of it is translated from Japanese to English, but a reasonable part of the collection was originally written in English about Japanese themes by author's without obviously Japanese names. This level of inclusion is excellent. Works in this collection include chapters from fiction books, essays, fantasy, clear science fiction, historical fantasy, autobiographical pieces, haiku, tanka, a graphical story, and a Noh play. If the theme of this collection is "Japan", then the sub-theme is "travel." which makes this a doubly interesting collection.

My two favorite pieces are (1) "Kurozuka: A Noh Play" which adroitly pulls together separate threads of historical Japanese literature with traditional culture to create an enjoyable adventure tale, and (2) a collection of short essays from the translators of these pieces on what they find hard or impossible to translate from Japanese. Each translator makes excellent and thought provoking observations about phrases and concepts which do not have straight forward equivalents in English. I was particularly impressed with Hitomi Yoshino's essay about the challenges of translating the nuances of politeness and gender conveyed by Japanese sentence endings (and word choice) into English. As Yoshino correctly explains, English does have these concepts, but it is really hard to naturally and fully represent the original Japanese meaning in English. As an example, when I was a student, I had a chance to attend a Noh play at my university in the States. Since I knew that Noh plays often use hard to understand archaic Japanese, I read a copy of the English translation of this play ahead of time. It was unfortunate that our library didn't have a copy in the original Japanese, since I mistakenly assumed that several of the main characters were male. At the play, when I heard the actual Japanese, it was very clear from word choice, sentence ending forms, etc which of the characters where female, and this changed the meaning of the play altogether. As each of the translators entertainingly and accurately explain in their essays, Japanese is quite different from English.

I recommend this collection to those who are interested in Japan and both modern and traditional Japanese literature.

I thank the publishers, editors, authors, and translators for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this collection.

A delightfully diverse range of different stories filled with rich cultural references and insights into lesser known genres.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC!

Monkey encapsulates the rich deeply varied landscape and cluture of Japan with 24 different pieces of writing to enjoy in this volume such as short stories, poems, book excerpts, personal essays and even a Noh Play and comic. As someone who is interested in Japan but has read a small amount of Japanese literature, Monkey was a new reading experience for me. Each piece was aesthetically pleasing to look at, accompanied with beautiful art work and I would be happy to read other volumes on different topics.
I did personally prefer the first half of the magazine, which was outside the Monkey's Dozen, focussing on the theme of travel. Standouts being Sea Horse a story by Hiromi Kawakami exploring a "half-human" woman's past, being passed on from husband to husband and exploring the mistreatment she has suffered over the years. The woman can see herself in her daughter, who is different to other humans and the piece jumps between the past and modern, exploring the woman's relationships and longing for the ocean. A impactful, beautifully written story, I will be reading Kawakami's novels now. My other stand out was Hell a story by Kikuko Tsumura, this made me laugh out loud the story follows two female friends who die on a trip as they navigate hell with hell personally designed to their sins. One has the sin of over consumption of stories be that in life, tv or novels and the other has the sin of over talking. The worldbuilding was fun, hell is desrcibed as seperate faculties of a business and the demons face the same trials and tribulations as we do on earth affairs, job dissatisfaction etc.
My main issue, I didn't realise some of the stories were book excerpts till after I had finished reading them which led to me feeling confused and disatisified when they were unconcluded. Although, I soon realised, as I carried on reading this mistake was on my behalf. This magazine will come down to taste with a wide rage of peices, I enjoyed some a lot more than others and as my favourites were closer to the beginning, I did find myself reading pieces which didn't interest me fast or skimming over parts to move on to the next. That being said, each piece has merit and I'm grateful to have been introduced to many new authors, poets and will be carrying out further research and delving into more Japanese literature from reading the magazine.
Overall, I liked trying something new there is something for everyone in this magazine. Even the pieces I enjoyed less, I still learnt new things and was exposed to different styles of writing, there are some real gems in here. Monkey has done a great job in collating the pieces, showcasing a wide varitey and the look of the magazine is a winner for me!

I majored in Japanese Literature in college so I was very pleased to be able to read such a diverse collection of work in this volume. There is literally something for everyone as the diversity ranges from topic to format to writing style and more. I particularly enjoyed the haiku and some of the older works, i.e. Kawabata. The artwork is also beautiful, and as a translator myself, the notes from the translators on challenging words and concepts was particularly interesting. That in itself is worthy of a whole volume.
Kudos to the editors for pulling together such a range of writing!

I hadn't heard of this literary magazine before seeing it on Netgalley, and I feel like I've uncovered a treasure trove. There are English translations of works of short fiction by Japanese authors I'd heard of before, such as Hiromi Kawakami and Yasunari Kawabata, a poem by Mieko Kawakami, an essay by Haruki Murakami, and there are also excerpts from longer works by authors that I've been newly introduced to, such as Hideo Furukawa, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, and Yuko Tsushima. There are also essays, travel pieces, a poignant graphic story about a lost overcoat in search of its owner, and plenty more to read and reread. This volume also contains a section with insight from translators about the often difficult art of translating literature. This is a collection of stories that I will visit again and again on my journey to discover new Japanese literary voices, and I can't wait to see the next volume.

I would like to say thank you for allowing me to read this book thank you to the publisher the author and net galley. I thought this compilation of short stories and fragmented ideas of memoirs were actually really intriguing usually this type of book is not what I usually read so I was a little bit hesitant going into this book but I thought overall this was very good and I enjoyed that it was translated to English and appreciate that

MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL was a delightful collection of diverse writings that included short stories, a Noh play, a graphic story and poetry. Sea Horse was my favourite short story, but I also really enjoyed many of the other works as well. One nice touch at the end was the notes from the translators on the words they struggled to render in English, which offered great insight into the translation process. If you are a fan of contemporary Japanese literature, this anthology offers a wonderful range of tales, with contributions from a number of leading authors. It gets 4 stars from me.

This is the second issue of a literary journal focused on, mostly contemporary, Japanese writing in a variety of genres, all in English translation. It’s an English-language offshoot of the existing Japanese version and a rebrand of the earlier Monkey Business. It’s published annually and this edition features extracts from novels, short stories, essays, poetry and even a Noh play. In some ways this reminded me of magazines like Granta or maybe a New Yorker special issue except there’s a wonderful attention to detail in the layout and overall design: an incredibly pleasing emphasis on the visual as much as the verbal with full page and double-spread illustrations rendered in glorious colours based on acrylics, photographs and pastels. There’s so much packed into this issue, all of which’s loosely connected by the theme of ‘travel’, it’s hard to single out the strongest entries. I was impressed by new translations of work by Yuko Tsushima, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa and Yasunari Kawabata. The Shibusawa’s an excerpt from a fantastical, historical novel I'd love to see issued in its entirety, while the Tsushima is a moving, evocative exploration of a mother’s loss and grief. Other pieces that stood out were: Kikuko Tsumura’s “Hell” a drily humorous account of a novelist’s afterlife in a hell targeting a very particular brand of gluttony, in this case the sin of excessive narrative consumption; a graphic narrative inspired by Gogol, Satoshi Kitamura's “The Overcoat” a delightfully quirky tale of a forlorn coat searching for its missing owner on a wintry night. I also pounced on a new story from Aoko Matsuda; a satisfying feminist fable by Hiromi Kawakami; and a rendering of the classic Noh play Kurozuka featuring a deliciously sinister demon. Monkey’s translators include Jay Rubin, Polly Barton and Sam Bett who also crop up in a later selection of brief thoughts on translating Japanese into other languages. The inclusion of fragmentary narratives by writers like Laird Hunt and Brian Evenson didn’t quite seem to fit with the style or spirit of the rest of the publication but, other than that, this is highly recommended for anyone interested in Japanese fiction and Japanese culture.