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Ginny Tapley Takemori

Biography

Ginny Tapley Takemori

Ginny Tapley Takemori is a translator from Japanese, and has translated fiction by more than a dozen early modern and contemporary Japanese writers, ranging from such early literary giants as Izumi Kyoka and Okamoto Kido to contemporary bestsellers MIYUKI MIYABE and RYU MURAKAMI. Her translation of Tomiko Inui's THE SECRET OF THE BLUE GLASS was longlisted for the Carnegie Prize. Her short fiction translations have appeared in Granta, Words Without Borders, a number of anthologies and she has also translated nonfiction books about Japanese art, theater and history.

Ginny Tapley Takemori

Books by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Earthlings
written by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - Fiction

As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.

Convenience Store Woman
written by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - Fiction

Winner of Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN is the incomparable story of Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old Tokyo resident who has been working at the Hiiromachi “Smile Mart” for the past 18 years. Keiko has never fit in --- neither in her family nor in school --- but in her convenience store, she is able to find peace and purpose with rules clearly delineated by the store’s manual, and copying her colleagues’ dress, mannerisms and speech. She plays the part of a “normal person” excellently --- more or less. Keiko is very happy, but those close to her pressure her to find a husband and a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.