Healing Fiction
Imagine diving into a world that's both familiar and comforting yet enhanced by the magic of Japanese and Korean literature in translation. That's the charm of what has been coined 'healing fiction'. It's a genre that lets you journey through stories that mirror our reality and experiences with a gentler edge, provided by authors' and translators' skill with language - all the better to explore, reflect, and enjoy a cosy reprieve from this frenetic modern world.
Our list includes the related genre of cosy fantasy and warm, life-affirming novels because we think they have healing qualities too. If you enjoyed the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, this list is for you.
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
34.99 AUD
Category: Sci-fi & Fantasy | Series: Tomes and Tea Ser.
Reyna and Kianthe dream of opening a friendly bookshop together, serving the very best tea and cakes. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters - all complemented by love and good company. But Reyna is an elite bodyguard to a vengeful queen, and Kianthe is the mos ...Show more
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
19.99 AUD
Category: Fiction | Series: Tales from the Café #1
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping ...Show more
The Goodbye Cat: The uplifting tale of wise cats and their humans by the global bestselling author of THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES by Hiro Arikawa
32.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
A new Japanese bestseller- seven fabulous warm, wise and sarcastic cats support the complicated lives of their humans BY THE AUTHOR OF THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES A PERFECT READ FOR CAT-LOVERS Against changing seasons in Japan, seven cats weave their way through their o ...Show more
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
19.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant called the Kamogawa Diner run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare. Customers who can find the hidden diner are treated to an extravagant meal, but it's not the main reason for visiting . . . The father-daughter duo have started adve ...Show more
DallerGut Dream Department Store: The Joyfully Magical Korean Bestseller by Miye Lee
29.99 AUD
Category: Fiction | Series: Dallergut Dream Department Store Ser.
|| THE NO.1 KOREAN BESTSELLER WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD|| In a mysterious town that lies hidden in our collective subconscious, there's a quaint little store where all kinds of dreams are sold . . . Day and night, visitors both human and animal from all over the world shuffle in sleepily in their ...Show more
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
32.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
There was only one thing on her mind.'I must start a bookshop.' Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bo ...Show more
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
22.99 AUD
Category: Sci-fi & Fantasy | Series: Legends & Lattes Ser.
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is a cosy, heartwarming slice-of-life fantasy about found families and fresh starts - perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Katherine Addison and T. Kingfisher. High fantasy, low stakes - with a double-shot of coffee. After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is ...Show more
Remarkably Bright Creatures: Curl up with 'that octopus book' everyone is talking about by Shelby Van Pelt
22.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 'Full of heart and humour . . . I loved it.' Ruth Hogan 'Will stay with you for a long time.' Anstey Harris 'I defy you to put it down once you've started' Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the n ...Show more
What You Are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
32.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
At once heart-rending and heartwarming, this bestselling shortlistee of the Japan Booksellers' Prize is a celebraton of community libraries and the life-changing power of book recommendation. 'I definitely want to visit this library. I feel kinder after this book' 5***** - Reader review What are you l ...Show more
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
24.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite ...Show more
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: The International Bestseller for lovers of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Satoshi Yagisawa
24.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and jo ...Show more
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
22.99 AUD
Category: Fiction
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GUARDIAN BEST FICTION PICK OF 2021 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’s FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2021 ‘Serious novels are rarely this fun’ The Times ‘A gift’ Guardian ‘Buoyant with humanity’ Daily Mail ‘Worth the seven year wait’ Stylist When everything is lost, i ...Show more