The Japan Times:
David Joiner, The Heron Catchers
Fuminori Nakamura, The Rope Artist
Alan Spence’s Mister Timeless Blyth
Chris Glenn’s The Samurai Castle Master
Lady Joker: Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura
Three Stories by Yoko Tawada & Early Light by Osamu Dazai
Review of Steve Alpert’s Kyoto Stories
Review of Tanizaki’s Longing and Other Stories
Review of Kamusari Tales Told at Night
Vou edited by Taylor Mignon
Yoko Tawada’s Scattered all over the World
Chris Glenn’s The Battle of Sekigahara
Ko Machida’s Rip It Up
Fuminori Nakamura’s My Annihilation
David Joiner’s Kanazawa
Books for 2022
Kaoru Takamura’s Lady Joker: Volume One
Kyoko Nakajima’s Things Remembered and Things Forgotten
Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Mirror
Izumi Suzuki’s Terminal Boredom
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
Interview with Alan Spence
Feature on Strong Women, Soft Power
Interview with Taiyo Fujii
Interview with Risa Wataya
Interview with David Pilling
Interview with Allison Markin Powell
Interview with Fuminori Nakamura
Books for 2021
The Best Japanese Books of the Last Decade
Feature on Sake by Brian Ashcraft
Feature on Books for 2020
Feature on Tomoka Shibasaki’s Spring Garden
Feature on A Tokyo Anthology
Feature on Brian Ashcraft’s Japanese Whisky
Feature on Books for 2019
Feature on Books for 2019 part 2
Feature of Masahisa Fukase’s Family
Feature on Hal Gold’s Unit 731
Feature on Haruki Murakami’s Underground
Two Rabbits 20 Questions
Review of Shion Miura’s The Easy Life in Kamusari”
Review of MW Larson’s When the Waves Came
Review of J M Lee’s The Investigation
Review of Marius B Jansen’s Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration
Review of Chris Harding’s The Japanese
Review of Ono Masatsugu’s Echo on the Bay
Review of Susumu Nakanishi’s The Japanese Linguistic Landscape
Review of Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders
Review of Gavin Blair’s Zen in Japanese Culture
Review of Kazumi Wilds’ Kojiki: The Birth of Japan
Review of The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks
Review of Shaun Curry’s The Swords of Silence
Review of Teru Miyamoto’s Inhabitation
Review of Kanji Hanawa’s Backlight
Review of Nick Hurst’s Falling from the Floating World
Review of Kyoko Nakajima’s The Little House
Review of Soji Shimada’s Murder in the Crooked House
Review of Shuji Terayama’s When I Was a Wolf
Review of Speculative Japan 4
Review of Mia Ayumi Malhotra’s Isako Isako
Review of Fuminori Nakamura’s Cult X
Review of Hideo Yokoyama’s Seventeen
Review of Durian Sukegawa’s Sweet Bean Paste
Review of Meiko Kawakami’s Ms Ice Sandwich
Review of Tokyo Poetry Journal 5
Review of Ikigai.
Review of Kiriu Minashita’s Sonic Peace
Review of Kazufumi Shiraishi’s The Part of me That Isn’t Broken Inside
Review of Fuminori Nakamura’s The Boy in the Earth
Review of Richard Henry Brunton’s Building Japan
Review of Karin Tanabe’s The Diplomat’s Daughter
Review of Hiromi Kawakami’s The Nakano Thrift Shop
Review of Sir Ernest Satow’s A Diplomat in Japan
Review of Hideo Furukawa’s Slow Boat
Review of Brian Burke-Gaffney’s Nagasaki
Review of Ian Buruma’s The Wages of Guilt
Review of Kenneth Rexroth’s 100 Poems from the Japanese
Review of Marc Peter Keane’s Japanese Garden Notes
Review of Mamoru Akamine’s The Ryukyu Kingdom
Review of Michael J. Green’s By More Than Providence
Review of Paul S. Atkins’s Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet
Review of Nicolas Obregon’s Blue Light Yokohama
Review of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Kappa
Review of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko
Review of Naoya Shiga’s A Dark Night’s Passing
Review of Takeshi Kaiko’s Into a Black Sun
Review of Yukio Mishima’s The Sound of Waves
Review of Ko Unoki’s International Relations and the Origins of the Pacific War
Review of Sarah Frederick’s Turning Pages
Review of Yasushi Inoue’s The Hunting Gun
Review of Tokyo Poetry Journal 3
Review of Steve Twomey’s Countdown to Pearl Harbour
Review of Kunitake Kume’s Japan Rising
Review of Matsuo Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Review of Lian Hearn’s The Tengu’s Game of Go
Review of Lian Hearn’s Lord of the Darkwood
Review of Alan Spence’s The Pure Land
Review of Yukio Mishima’s Forbidden Colours
Review of Akiko Hashimoto’s The Long Defeat
Review of Shusaku Endo’s When I Whistle
Review of Seicho Matsumoto, A Quiet Place
Review of Adam Clulow, The Company and the Shogun
Review of Lian Hearn’s Autumn Princess, Dragon Child
Review of Lynne Kutsutake’s The Translation of Love
Review of Keigo Higashino’s A Midsummer’s Equation
Review of Lian Hearn’s Emperor of the Eight Islands
Review of Kenzaburo Oe’s A Quiet Life
Review of Kenzaburo Oe’s Somersault
Review of Yukio Mishima’s After The Banquet
Review of Kenzaburo Oe’s The Silent Cry
Review of Leza Lowitz’s Up From The Sea
Review of Amy Yamada’s Bedtime Eyes
Review of Robert S Boynton’s The Invitation-Only Zone
Review of Jackie Copleton’s A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
Review of Nicholas Hogg’s Tokyo
Review of Kyoko Inoue’s MacArthur’s Japanese Constitution
Review of Jay Rubin’s The Sun Gods
Review of Ryotaro Shiba’s The Last Shogun
Review of Banana Yoshimoto’s Amrita
Review of Machi Tawara’s Salad Anniversary
Review of Glosserman and Snyder’s The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash
Review of Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask
Review of Kenzaburo Oe’s A Personal Matter
Review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant
Review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World
Review of Frederick R. Dickinson’s War and National Reinvention
Review of Phyllis Birnbaum’s Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy
Review of Richard Connaughton’s Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear
Review of Yasushi Inoue’s Life of a Counterfeiter
Review of Alan Spence’s Night Boat
Review of Shusaku Endo’s Deep River
Review of Sawako Ariyoshi’s The River Ki
Other
The Cthulhu Helix, Shoreline of Infinity
Sunday Times. April 26th, 2020.
Interesting Times. Guest blog post for Birlinn.
Planning Permission, an essay for Nothing in the Rule Book.
June 6th 2016, In Writing about Aberdeen … in The National. Read.
June 5th 2016, ‘Essay of the Week’: Remembering Piper Alpha: the inferno that changed Aberdeen forever in the Sunday Herald. Read.
May 25th 2016, 5 Books Based on Contemporary History for the Scottish Book Trust. Read.
May 24th 2016, a look at page 69 of The Waves Burn Bright for The Next Best Book Blog.
“What The Devil? Why Scotland Does Scary So Well.” An article for the Scottish Book Trust.
It’s Not What You Know: Aristotle and the Authority of Experience, an article for Nothing in the Rule Book.
The Undercover Soundtrack. An article on the relationship between music and my writing.
Guest post about First Time Solo on Our Reviews Online.
The Guardian: A piece on Nirvana’s album, In Utero
The Way of Japanese Whisky in Escape: The Summer Issue
The List: Teaching English in Japan
RAN Magazine: A travel article on Inuyama, Japan and a book review (not archived online).
Gaijinpot:
The Only Gaijin in the Village:
Chapter 1: Moving In
Chapter 2: Community Service
Chapter 3: A Farewell to Arms
Chapter 4: War and Peace
Chapter 5: The Secret Garden
Chapter 6: Exterminator!
Chapter 7: Look Into a Glass Onion
Chapter 8: Wuthering Heights
Chapter 9: Happy When it Rains
Chapter 10: Paint it Black
Chapter 11: New Year’s Day
Chapter 12: Comfortably Numb
Japanese Literature:
1. 8 Contemporary Japanese Novelists (Who Aren’t Haruki Murakami)
2. 14 Novels Set in Japan
3. 9 Must-read Books on Japanese History
4. Great Japanese Writers: Kenzaburo Oe
5. Great Japanese Writers: Yukio Mishima
6. 8 Japanese Novels Set Outside Tokyo
7. Great Japanese Writers: Shusaku Endo
8. Kazuo Ishiguro
9. Great Japanese Writers: Hiromi Kawakami
10. Great Japanese Writers: Miyabi Miyuki
11. New Year, New Books. J-Lit in 2018
12. Discovery: 5 Japanese Science Fiction Writers
13. Great Japanese Writers: Fuminori Nakamura
14. Great Japanese Writers: Ryu Murakami
Hida-Furukawa Snowshoe Trekking
The Mummy of Yokokura Temple
Gaijinpot: A large number of travel articles about Japan (some of these were then republished on Japan Today)
Metropolis:
The Thorn Puller by Hiromi Ito
Rita Taketsuru (Cowan) and the Scottish roots of Japanese whisky here.
Eastlit
Interview with J David Simons in Eastlit September 2014.
Guest Editorial in October 2013 Eastlit
Iain Maloney 