Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review and selected the book as one of their Best Summer Books 2015. My own review of the Japanese version is here and other opinions of my fellow Japanese mystery bloggers about the original Japanese version can be found at My Japanese bookshelf and In the Threshold of Chaos.
And I'd of course love it if you would read the book, not just as the translator, but even more so as someone who really became a fan of Ayatsuji's works after reading this book and even went to study in Kyoto and like Ayatsuji, became a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club.
And to finish with a quote from myself, made in 2011 in my review of the Japanese version:
But yes, Jukkakukan no Satsujin. Important. New Orthodox School. Read It.
Why isn't this translated in English?
I have to admit that I am a bit surprised how that turned out! I should cry out for more English translations and see what happens!
EDIT: Oh, totally forgot that Publishers Weekly also did an interview with Ayatsuji in connection to the book. You can read it here. (Actually, the 'final' product was slightly rewritten, I see, but I was the one who translated the interview.)
EDIT2: The Decagon House Murders was also reviewed by the Washington Post in 'The Decagon House Murders' invokes Agatha Christie - in Japan.
congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThanks for the heads up. I just bought my copy off Amazon.com. If this one does well, maybe you can get them to publish Moryo no Hako, the sequel to The Summer of the Ubume. I realize that Ubume did not sell well (as you have stated), but why should it? It was a book by an author unknown in the West, and I never saw it advertised at all. I picked it up just because I was one of the doubtless few Westerners who had seen the anime of Moryo (which was never completed). I still want to find out about those boxes.
ReplyDeleteMoryo no Hako actually was completely fan-subbed into English. All thirteen episodes plus the fourteenth Blu-ray special episode are easily found on streaming sites.
DeleteThanks for the information.
DeleteHope you'll like the book!
DeleteThe problem of Moryo no Hako is still its length, I think. I have the book somewhere, but it's /really/ big. It's hard to sell to the publisher and the audience (especially as those super-long novels are a bit more rare on this side, I think). It's the same with Nikaido Reito actually, most of his books are really long, so that's a very big hurdle in bringing over his books, I think.
Long mystery novels have lately become the rule rather than the exception here in the U.S. The average length is in the neighborhood of 400 pages. If you look at Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, for instance, when they started in the 1950s, they averaged about 150 pages. Toward the end to the series they averaged closer to 350 pages. I think the reason is that readers have to spend a lot of money for new books and they want to get the best deal for their money. So length alone might be a selling point to the current audience.
DeleteI prefer longer mystery novels as well. I don't know how feasible it would be to go the original Japanese route by publishing lengthy works in two parts here in the West, but it would save some headaches at least in terms of binding.
DeleteWell, MIYABE Miyuki's extremely long "Puppet Master" is now being published in English in multiple volumes, just like the Japanese version (five volumes, I think?). Only digitally though. Together with AYATSUJI's Ankokukan no Satsujin and NIKAIDOU's Jinroujou no Kyoufu, probably the longest detective novels in Japan.
DeleteSo it's not completely possible, but you do need a publisher who dares to take the risk and have a model that makes sense financially. What I can tell you is that in Japan there's certainly the will and in some cases even initiatives started focusing on putting "Japanese detective fiction" more prominently on the international stage, but only the future can tell how those efforts will turn out.
I hope more japanese authors will be released
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteDo you think that if this sells well enough, more of the Yakata-series will get published in English? Would you take the job if presented?
ReplyDeleteIt's all up to the publisher and Ayatsuji himself of course, but I imagine (hope) that if this book does well, they'll consider putting more out. And if possible, I'd definitely want to do it again.
DeleteI don't have the impression that Locked Room International does much effort to advertize their books though...
ReplyDeleteIt looks like only readers who have a long-time interest in locked room mysteries would buy this book, LRI should make it more available to the general public or else how on earth do they think it would sell well?
LRI tries to push its books through (positive) reviews in the major magazines, it seems; that's why we got an early review in PW (and an interview with Ayatsuji). Obviously, LRI doesn't have the same 'power' to push it books into all bookstores, so a lot of it will have to come from word-to-mouth, I think.
DeleteJust finished reading the book and absolutely LOVED it! Your translation was excellent and very readable. I came close figuring out the truth near the end, but I was still “colorfully shocked” as Ayatsuji says in his Publishers Weekly interview. Reflecting on this work and Another, the aspect of Ayatsuji’s writing that I most enjoy is the mental optical illusion. Readers not only need logical reasoning but also the critical thinking to pinpoint the wonderful “audacity” you mentioned in the afterword. Praying/wishing/hoping for a translation of The Water Mill House Murders in the future! :)
ReplyDeleteI am glad you loved the book (and the translation! Phew!). When I first spoke Mr. Ayatsuji about translating the book, he said he knew nothing about translating, so he'd let it all up to me, but the one thing I should pay attention to was to make sure I would convey the shock I felt when I first read the book (when "the" sentence comes). I'm happy to hear the translation too managed to shock you!
DeleteSorry for the late response, but, once again, congratulation and I'll make it a point to read and review this one as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we finally live in the era where the supply overwhelmes the demand again. Just like in the Golden Age! Keep up the good work.
Thanks, and I hope you'll like the book! I actually haven't seen the thing myself yet because of circumstances =_=
DeleteHello! I'm sorry for my poor English in advance.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog not so long ago, but it already gave me so much enjoyment! I like reading not only about books/authors I will most likely never read (my knowledge of Japanese is basically 0) but also about stuff I have certain knowledge of (Detective Conan and detective video games are my favourite things ever).
I really enjoyed various translations you've put up here. I hope you'll have an opportunity, time and desire to do more of these.
Recently I had a pleasure to read The Decagon House Murders. Great book, entertaining and clever. Thank you very much for your work on it!
There is also something that you can maybe help me with. I've read nearly all Japanese mystery novels there are in my native language (Russian that is), so now I want to dedicate my time to works translated in English. Is there perhaps any kind of list of such books on the Internet? It will save me so much time.
And that's basically it. I just wanted to thank you for this amazing blog. There is so much more to read here so I'll be sticking around!
I'm happy you enjoy the blog, as well as The Decagon House Murders! It's definitely not over yet for translations on the blog, but I'll admit it's a rather irregular project (and there's also the selection process), so I can't say /when/.
DeleteIn the meantime, here's a Goodreads list of Japanese mystery novels available in English (a very up-to-date on too, as far as I can tell):
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19227.Japanese_Mystery_Detective_Crime_Fiction_Translated_Into_English#25561888
Seems like exactly what I was looking for! Thank you very much.
DeleteHo Ling, Excellent work on translating this novel.It was brilliantly translated.But i have two issues regarding this book.
ReplyDeleteOne is that the basic premise of the story was interesting in christie like way,but the backstory & ending was a downer for me.I cant understand why this novel has been praised so much? I heard that yukito wrote this inspired by ten little indians.But it does not do justice to the original novel in any way.It would have been better if he could focus on a different idea rather than the island setting.I think yukito & higasino are over rated writers.I just saw the Galileo series.It was awful.I mean how stupid the stories were using science as an excuse.And that scribbling everywhere by galileo before the moment of realization annoyed me the most.I think shin kibayashi & gosho aoyama & yozaburo Kanari are better writers than these novelists.Maybe they are manga writers which is why they arent so popular.Its not fair to their talents.Judging from your kosuke kindaichi reviews,I think it would have been better if you were given to translate some of his novels.I think it deserves a english translation.Personally speaking,I think LRI made a mistake in choosing this story.They should have gone for seishi yokomizo.
And second point why wasnt your profile image printed in the book?It is a custom in my country where the publisher prints the writers & translator's profile images inside the book usually at the beginning pages & or last pages.
Thank your for reading the book. Shame you didn't like the basic premise, but everyone has their own preferences. I myself loved the book even before I got to translate it.
DeleteAnd I don't know where you're from and how the industry is there, but in most languages I read, translators profiles are not rare, but definitely not the custom (and I don't even remember having ever seen one with a picture of the translator).
Finally got around to reading this... could have used a bit more proofreading (lots of small typos and errors), but Kudos to Locked Room International for bringing over stuff that, with my broken Japanese, would probably never have a chance to read otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe novel mostly lived up to expectations, though I have to say I found Shimada's foreword a bit baffling. He tries so hard to separate Ayatsuji's novel from Western mystery he basically ends up both overhyping and shorchanging the novel - frankly, to my mystery reading eye, it didn't seem worse written, nor more intricately clewed than most Golden Era stuff.
Sorry about the typos. They always manage to slip through, even with proofreaders :/
DeleteTypos are no big deal, I was more interested if you had something to add to the 'book is intentionally badly written, characters are robots, only the tricks matter' thing Shimada harps on over and over. 'Cause, honestly, maybe it's the translation but Ayatsuji's didn't seem any more un-literary than, say, a Queen novel, or one of the shorter ones by Christie. It also features a reasonable and properly hinted motive, unlike Zodiac Murders for example.
DeleteMyeah, I don't really read mystery fiction to get my literary fix anyway, but I didn't find this novel, or any other early shin honkaku mysteries, particularly different from most other puzzle-plot oriented mystery fiction myself in terms of "literary value". Shimada has a grand narrative to tell in terms of the development of Japanese mysery fiction (he has written plenty of essays etc. on that topic), and perhaps he likes to juxtapose the puzzle plot vs. literary qualities a bit too strongly against each other.
DeleteHi, Ho-Ling!
ReplyDeleteA year ago I left a couple of comments under your post about "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" regarding the upcoming release of Russian translation of that novel. I mentioned that the book was to be published as the first in "Honkaku Detective" series and was hoping that more will follow.
And they did!
"Murder in the Crooked House" was released here only a few months later compared to the English version. And yesterday I picked up the Russian edition of (well, I'm sure you've already guessed) "The Decagon House Murders"!
Ayatsuji in Russian! That seemed like a totally crazy idea only a year ago but here we are. All books are published in hardcover with a similar design (which I am actually not a fan of) and even have kanji for "honkaku" on the spine. Btw "Tokyo Zodiac" later received a cheaper paperback edition.
The first thing I did with my copy of "Decagon House" was checking THAT sentence. Well, of course it's not on a separate new page. Bummer.
Anyway, that was just something I wanted to share with you. I hope that there are more books coming under the "Honkaku Detective" banner. Specifically, more books not yet translated in English so I can read them for the first time.
Hi!
DeleteOh, wow, funny to see they went full-in with the "Honkaku" nomer. When I was first explained by Shimada (and LRI's Pugmire) how they wanted to use the term "honkaku" when bringing Japanese stories to English, I have to admit I wasn't really sure about it, so it's really weird, but also rewarding to see the word used as is elsewhere too.
I'll personally always regret I wasn't able to copy the experience of "the sentence" exactly in the English version, but I'm glad I did manage to insert some element of surprise there by pushing it all the way down to the last line of the left page, making it relatively hard to spot when turning pages, especially as the right-hand page is likely to attract attention due to its layout. The idea was that people at least don't see the line until the moment they actually arrive there.
Anyway, thanks for the update! I hope you'll get to enjoy many more honkaku mystery stories!