“Honeybees and Distant Thunder” by Riku Onda

Honeybees And Distant Thunder’ is a lyrical ode to the cutthroat world of classical music

Regular readers know that your friendly correspondents have developed a love for Japanese mysteries. For this week's book, we've branched out from the mystery genre, into Japanese coming of age fiction.

Riku Onda’s “Honeybees and Distant Thunder” was a best-seller when it was released in Japan in 2016. It won the Naoki Prize and the Japan Bookseller’s Award, and was made into a movie in 2019. The English translation by Philip Gabriel was released this week.