![]() Gaiman’s best-known novel, "American Gods," was about deities whose modern-day existence depended on people still believing in them. ![]() The blurb on the back of Ubume describes Kyogoku as “the Neil Gaiman of Japanese mystery fiction,” and it’s a fair comparison. He has little appetite for mystical hokum rather, he seeks to explain fantastical phenomena by situating them in a precise social and historical context-an affectionate form of debunking, if you will. The self-proclaimed "yokai" (ghost) researcher is an expert on the spooks and preternatural creatures that populate Japanese folklore, using them as inspiration for his numerous doorstop-sized tomes. Kyogoku has since established himself as one of Japan’s preeminent mystery authors. ![]() ![]() Such was the case with Natsuhiko Kyogoku’s "The Summer of the Ubume." When it was first released in 1994, the book was deemed too long to be eligible for any Rookie of the Year awards (which have maximum allowable page counts), inspiring publisher Kodansha to create a new accolade, the Mephisto Prize, for unpublished writers with a tendency to ramble. ![]() Far rarer are the ones who have had a new prize created because of them. There’s no shortage of writers who have picked up literary awards for their debut novels. ![]()
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