Facultas bookshop located near St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.The facultas bookstores are owned and run by one of Austria’s leading publishing groups, which is itself owned by student organisations at the University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Special promotional table at Facultas bookshop in Vienna being used to promote Red Circle Minis. Photo: Facultas.“Booksellers and readers are delighted, and love the chance to get in touch with and be inspired by these unique authors,” Salat says. “The team at facultas are thrilled with the first titles, and curious to read more Red Circle Authors,” he adds.
The series, which launched the Red Circle publishing programme at the end of last year, has been welcomed right across the globe: from Canada to Australia; from Japan to the United Kingdom and far beyond.
The books and series have been reviewed in major publications in Japan in Japanese as well as internationally in English, German and French despite the series being launched in what the publisher calls an ‘English-first’ strategy with each Mini, an original first edition, being published in English before any other language including Japanese.
One such example is a German professor writing in the Literatur Kritik who describes Stand-in Companion, by the Naoki Prize-winner Kazufumi Shiraishi, the first of the three Minis to be published, as a ‘new paradigm’ in contemporary Japanese literature with its ‘trans-humanist’ narrative.
Facultas bookshop located near St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.Nakamura, the so-called Master of Japanese Noire, one of Japan’s most exciting authors, is one of six authors of the curated group, Red Circle Authors.
Last year, he completed a highly successful multi-city tour in the German-speaking world, to promote his third novel published in German, Die Maske.
Red Circle Authors Limited, the series’ London-based publisher, is planning to announce new authors joining its select group of contemporary Japanese authors and new titles later this year.
Bookshops in Vienna, London, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, San Francisco and Singapore now stock, sell and promote the series, alongside all of the mainstream online book retailers.
About Red Circle:Red Circle Authors Limited is a specialist publishing and communications company that conducts bespoke projects on behalf of a carefully selected and curated group of leading Japanese authors. Red Circle showcases Japan’s best creative writing. For more information on Red Circle, Japanese literature, and Red Circle authors please visit: www.redcircleauthors.com.-
About Fuminori Nakamura:Fuminori Nakamura is the most exciting thriller and crime writer of his generation in Japan whose fast-paced narratives hypnotically blend psychological suspense with literary fiction. Nakamura, who has won numerous literary prizes in Japan, won his first non-Japanese literary award in 2014, the NoirCon’s David L. Goodis Award, named after the American crime fiction writer, who epitomized the noir fiction genre.- About Kanji Hanawa:Kanji Hanawa, a former professor of French literature is a master of the shorty story. He wrote hundreds and dedicated his life to writing short stories and novella about life in ancient, modern and contemporary Japan. Two of his short stories have been shortlisted for the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize. Hanawa’s tales reflect a deep interest in human psychology and complex relationships – whose narratives expose the pressures and challenges of life in Japan.
- About Kazufumi Shiraishi:Kazufumi Shiraishi had a successful career, spanning two decades, as a journalists working for one of Japan's highest profile monthly magazines, Bungeishinju, before following in the steps of his father and twin brother becoming a full time author. He is a deeply thoughtful author who writes about love, life and the human condition and is unique in being the only Japanese author to follow in his father’s footsteps by winning the same major Japanese literary prize.
- About Roger Pulvers:Roger Pulvers is an author, playwright, theatre director, and translator. He has published more than 50 books in Japanese and English, including novels, essays, plays, and poetry. Helping make Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and befriending David Bowie brought him back to Japan and inspired him to become the award-winning and prolific author, playwright, film director he is today. His recent novel, Hoshizuna Monogatari (Star Sand), which he wrote in Japanese, was published by Kodansha, Japan’s largest publisher, in 2015 and subsequently in English and French in 2016 and 2017 respectively. It was released as a film, directed by him, in 2017.
