This beautiful hardback copy of The Boy and the Dog (Scribner 2022) by famed Japanese author Seishu Hase, translated by Alison Watts, won the prestigious Naoki Prize. A simple story of a dog named Tamon who, after the tragic tsunami, travels the length of Japan for five years seeking refuge. Several people house him along the way in six very different circumstances but he yearns to continue south. Is he trying to return home? Or is there some other force driving him?

Just breathlessly finished Taken (Harper Collins 2023) by Australian crime author Dinuka McKenzie, the second novel featuring Detective Sergeant Kate Miles. What a follow-up to her debut! This book focuses on any parent’s worst nightmare – a missing child – while also immersing readers more fully into the personal lives of the main characters. Taken is tightly plotted, surprising, tense, moving, reflective and full of the angst of parenthood.