Bento Books Announces Translation and Publishing Tie-up With Hayakawa Publishing

Bento Books, Inc. announced today that they will translate and publish five science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels from Japanese publisher Hayakawa Publishing Corporation. These titles will kick off the "Hayakawa World Project," a campaign to promote Japanese fiction and other media to worldwide markets. The first novels are scheduled for publication in late 2013, in printed and electronic formats. Finalized titles and release dates to be announced.

"We are excited about this new partnership with Hayakawa, the premier publisher of mystery, science fiction, and fantasy books in Japan," says Bento Books President Tony Gonzalez. "Bento Books was founded to bring Japanese literature to a wider audience, with an emphasis on high quality translation. We look forward to bringing these and many other Hayakawa titles to English readers."

"Pleased to Dissect You" (Hiroko Minakawa) is a mystery set in eighteenth century London. When partially dissected corpses start appearing in Dr. Barton's anatomy classroom, it's up to him and his students to find out who's responsible and stop them. This title won the 2012 Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize in Japan.

"Silver Wings of the Campanula" (Yuka Nakazato) won the 2012 Agatha Christy Award for New Writers. A gothic fantasy romance set in England in the late 1920s, this book tells the story of Elliot, a student at an elite university who has secretly taken the place of a rich industrialist's son, the blind Christine, whom Elliot watches over as a sister, and the handsome Sigmond Vertigo, a stranger with a dark secret.

"Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner, Vol. 1" (Yu Godai) is the first in a five-volume series of novels set in the world of the bestselling "Digital Devil Saga" and "Shin Megami Tensei" roleplaying video games. Six tribes battle in the post-apocalyptic Junkyard, a grim world of demons and evil powers that block entrance to the promised land, Nirvana.

"The Black Cat Takes a Stroll" (Akimaro Mori) won the 2011 Agatha Christy Award for New Writers. A collection of armchair detective shorts featuring a brilliant young professor who goes by the nickname of "The Black Cat," and his Poe-obsessed graduate student. Together, they collaborate to solve a variety of mysteries, drawing clues from fields as diverse as 19th Century Parisian cartography and the critical work of Stéphane Mallarmé.

"Many Many Sheep" (Issui Ogawa) is the first in a ten-volume science fiction epic of which six have been released in Japan. In 2803, colony planet Many Many Sheep is planning celebrations for the tricentennial of its founding, but a failing power core and rumors of an epidemic place the entire colony in danger. The beginning of a galactic saga spanning the history of humankind.