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Three Great Japanese Novels by Female Authors

Amélie Geeraert
Kokoro Media
Published in
8 min readJan 31, 2024

I have always loved reading as far as I can remember. As I kept asking, “What’s written here?” and “What’s written there?”, my grandfather decided to teach me how to read way before I entered elementary school. As a result, I was able to read what I wanted before I was five years old.

It took me 30 years from that point to realize how unbalanced my reading tastes were. Not in terms of genre: from 19th-century French classics to US science fiction, and from science popularization books to philosophy, I have a variety of interests. However, a few exceptions aside, the great majority of my favorite authors were men. That realization happened at the same time I decided to read more in the Japanese language, so I was determined to read modern Japanese female authors and expand my vision of what kind of writing humanity’s other 50% produced.

As a woman, the experience was like a big slap in the face — the kind that wakes you up real hard. I was reading books starring complex and realistic female characters who experienced events that only women do, and thought and felt tortured about a variety of matters from a completely different perspective — a perspective I felt very relatable. I empathized with the characters more than ever, and the reading of each of the following books was punctuated by a lot of nodding of the head.

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Kokoro Media
Kokoro Media

Published in Kokoro Media

Exploring the heart of Japan through people, places, and experiences.

Amélie Geeraert
Amélie Geeraert

Written by Amélie Geeraert

Living in Japan since 2011. I love interviewing inspiring people.

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