Dinner at the Night Library

For fans of What You Are Looking For is in the Library and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Translated by Philip Gabriel, the translator of IQ84 and The Travelling Cat Chronicles



The Night Library is no ordinary library.

Within it are found the rarest and most unusual collections – the books of deceased famous writers:

the books they wrote;

the books that inspired them;

the books they loved.

All Otaha Higuchi wants to do is work with books. However, the exhausting nature of her work at a chain bookstore, combined with her paltry salary and irritating manager quickly bring reality crashing down around her.

She is on the verge of quitting when she receives a message from somebody calling themselves 'Seven Rainbows', inviting her to apply for a job at a library with no name, a place referred to simply as 'The Night Library'.

After successfully passing the interview, Otaha arrives at The Night Library and her sunny personality immediately earns her comparisons with Anne of Green Gables. For the very first time she feels she has found her place in the world. As well as a treasure trove of books, the library houses a group of likeminded literary misfits, including a legendary chef who prepares incredible meals for the library's employees at the end of each day.

Together they embark on a series of bookish adventures. But when the library's mysterious owner decides to temporarily close the library, Otaha and her friends fear that it may not reopen and that the peace they have found there will forever be lost to them.

Is their friendship and their faith in the value of books strong enough to save it? And what will remain if it isn't?

Dinner at the Night Library is a heartwarming literary mystery, filled with quirky characters, Japanese culture and the mouthwatering meals. It asks why books matter and offers a cheer of encouragement to everybody who believes they do. Ultimately, it is a paean to reading and the relevance of books through the ages-past, present, and future.







Born 1970 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Harada won the 34th NHK Creative Radio Drama Grand Prix in 2005 for Little Princess No. 2. In 2007, she won the 31st Subaru Literary Award for The Teatime That Doesn't Start. Her novel How to Use 3,000 Yen won the Miyazaki Book Award. Her other books include Dinner at the Night Library and many more.

PhilipGabriel is the author of Mad Wives and Island Dreams: Shimao Toshio and the Margins of Japanese Literature and Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature and has translated many novels and short stories by the writer Haruki Murakami and other modern writers. He is recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature (2001) for his translation of Senji Kuroi's Life in the Cul-de-Sac, and the 2006 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for his translation of Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.