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The Great Passage cover art

The Great Passage

By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
Narrated by: Brian Nishii
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Summary

A charmingly warm and hopeful story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection. Award-winning Japanese author Shion Miura's novel is a reminder that a life dedicated to passion is a life well lived.

Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it's time for him to retire and find his replacement.

He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime - a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics - whom he swipes from his company's sales department.

Led by his new mentor and joined by an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the bond that connects us all: words.

©2012 Shion Miura (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Critic reviews

"Brian Nishii is the perfect narrator for this audiobook... The book's translation combined with Nishii's narration makes the story sound and feel Japanese - there's a subtle choppiness, and certain word choices and phrases aren't what native English speakers would say - and it's all entirely fitting and charming....a unique and fascinating listen." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Great Passage

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    3 out of 5 stars
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A bit of a struggle

After an interesting start, I must admit that I lost interest in this book and ended up grinding my way to the end. The format of following a different character in each chapter means that each chapter follows a similar pattern.

The character finds the dictionary department, thinks that it is weird, then comes to understand and eventually love it... rinse and repeat. Scatter in a couple of interesting but long-winded facts about the process of writing a dictionary and that's it, that's the book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Cute story

This was a lovely, cosy read and informative for anyone who is interested in Japan

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Quirky story

If you want to discover the day to day life of dictionary publicist in Japan, this story is for you!
Great narration as well!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect

Found this from its anime and it’s just as good definitely in my top 3 audiobooks of all time

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