Record of a Night Too Brief, Hiromi Kawakami, Translation Book Club

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Lucy North, published by Pushkin Press discussed at the BookBlast® Translation Book Club, Hatchards, Piccadilly, London. 

Record of a Night Too Brief is a collection of three surreal novellas imbued with a particular kind of magical realism that veer at times into the absurd, creating a tapestry of strange poetic imagery, episodes of bizarre shape-shifting, time warps, and a resonant exploration of identity, love, loss. What is real? What is a dream? The boundaries are blurred.

The discussion includes insights about the art of translation by Nicky Harman, translator from the Chinese, and Aneesa Higgins, translator from the French.

In April 2025, Hiromi Kawakami's novel, Under the Eye of the Big Bird, translated by Asa Yoneda, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.