Nomination template is up in the OP. Please nominate whatever you find of interest.
I’ll kick off the process with the most obvious nomination, that most people already expressed interest in:
Book: 蜜蜂と遠雷 上 | L30?? (learnnatively.com)
Genre: general fiction
Length: 上: 454, 下: 508
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Summary - Japanese
俺はまだ、神に愛されているだろうか?
ピアノコンクールを舞台に、人間の才能と運命、そして音楽を描き切った青春群像小説。
著者渾身、文句なしの最高傑作!
3年ごとに開催される芳ヶ江国際ピアノコンクール。「ここを制した者は世界最高峰のS国際ピアノコンクールで優勝する」ジンクスがあり近年、覇者である新たな才能の出現は音楽界の事件となっていた。養蜂家の父とともに各地を転々とし自宅にピアノを持たない少年・風間塵15歳。かつて天才少女として国内外のジュニアコンクールを制覇しCDデビューもしながら13歳のときの母の突然の死去以来、長らくピアノが弾けなかった栄伝亜夜20歳。音大出身だが今は楽器店勤務のサラリーマンでコンクール年齢制限ギリギリの高島明石28歳。完璧な演奏技術と音楽性で優勝候補と目される名門ジュリアード音楽院のマサル・C・レヴィ=アナトール19歳。彼ら以外にも数多の天才たちが繰り広げる競争という名の自らとの闘い。第1次から3次予選そして本選を勝ち抜き優勝するのは誰なのか?
Summary - English
Does God still love me?
A coming-of-age novel depicting human talent, destiny and music, set in a piano competition.
The author’s unquestionable masterpiece!
The Hagae International Piano Competition is held every three years. In recent years, the emergence of a new talent, a champion, has become an event in the music world. JINJI KAZAMA, 15, is a boy who lives with his beekeeper father from place to place and does not have a piano at home. Eiden Aya, 20, who once won national and international junior competitions as a prodigy girl and even made her CD debut, but has been unable to play the piano for a long time since the sudden death of her mother when she was 13. Akashi Takashima, 28, a music college graduate but now an office worker at a music shop, who is just barely within the age limit for the competition. Masaru C. Levy-Anatole, 19, of the prestigious Juilliard School, who is considered a potential winner due to his perfect playing technique and musicality. The competition is a battle against themselves, a battle of geniuses. Who will win the first three qualifying rounds and the finals?
(DeepL translation)
Content warnings if known
none that I know of
Why are you nominating this book: This has won the Naoki prize and is very highly praised. Many people in the club have expressed interest in it, and I already happen to own it. It is, however, very long. I guess we could start with the first volume only, and take it from there. (There’s also a third volume, loosely connected to the other two if I understand correctly, so there’s even more reading material if we end up loving it so much we can’t stop reading).