Sonoko Machida - Penguin Books Australia

SONOKO MACHIDA won the influential Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2021 with her much-loved novel 52-Hertz Whales, retitled in English as The Woman, the Boy and the Whale, which has sold over one million copies in Japan alone and was made into powerful and hugely acclaimed film. This translation into English by Sam Bett is long awaited. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1980, Sonoko Machida graduated from school to become a hairdresser. While in her twenties, she realized she had a strong wish to write stories. Her most recent book to be translated into English is The Convenience Store by the Sea.

Books by Sonoko Machida

The Woman, the Boy and the Whale

Sonoko Machida

A word-of-mouth sensation from Japan about finding connection, centred on a powerful, universal idea: what happens to those whose voices go unheard. Translated by Sam Bett