August 10–16, 2026
Love that consumes. Ambition that devours. Revenge that won’t let go. Five novels driven by characters who can’t stop — even when they know they should.
A couple journeys through mist-shrouded Britain seeking a son they can barely remember, driven by a love that persists even when memory fails — Ishiguro's most haunting exploration of how obsession and devotion can outlast everything, even ourselves.
A young man chases a phantom pinball machine through Tokyo's back rooms while another version of himself drinks beer in a coastal town, going nowhere fast — Murakami's debut obsessions are small, perfect, and utterly inescapable.
A woman strangles her husband and confesses to a coworker — then Masako's complicity spirals into an obsession that devours her completely, turning four exhausted factory workers into unwilling architects of their own undoing.
A murder in 1970s Osaka casts a shadow across twenty years—two children born from that single night become obsessed with truths that consume them in opposite directions, their fixation reshaping everyone around them. Higashino's most ambitious work reveals how ambition and vengeance, once unleashed, refuse to release their grip.
A woman who's spent a decade running from her gift for beast-speech gets pulled back into a conspiracy she can't ignore — Uehashi's gift is making us care desperately about the creatures caught in humanity's wars.