A Very Merry (Bookish) Christmas :)

When Emma and Guy floated the idea of the Christmas Humbook event, I was very flattered to be chosen by Lisa of ANZ LitLovers LitBlog to be her 'copinaute'.  While I'm curious as to what she has picked out for me to read next year (I have my suspicions...), today it's time for me to unveil my two choices for Lisa to try in 2013.

So how did I come to my final choices?  Well, I had a few things in mind when selecting them.  Firstly, I decided that both my choices should come from my preferred area of literature, fiction in translation, and that they should reflect my special areas of interest, German and Japanese literature.  Secondly, the books were chosen for style over content as (hopefully) that's the kind of book, Lisa will like!  Thirdly, I had a quick check, and both are available in the wider library network that we both use.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they're both fairly short...

Without further ado, my picks for Lisa are (links are to my reviews):

Natsume Soseki's Kusamakura

and Heinrich Böll's The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

I do hope that Lisa hasn't read them already :(