It is The Neverending Book by Naoki Matayoshi and Shinsuke Yohsitake, translated from the Japanese by Kendall Heitzman. It's an illustrated story (Matayoshi is the writer; Yoshitake the illustrator) that apparently was a "runaway bestseller."
I've never been clear on how much, or how quickly, a book has to sell to run away. Maybe if the publisher can't manage to keep it in print?
Anyway, this was a big deal in Japan, and the English-language edition is coming on April 21.
The story is, well, let me just quote the official copy:
An aged, near-blind, book-loving king sends two of his subjects out into the world to learn about unusual and magical books. One year later, they return to tell the whimsical, tender, and touching stories they’ve learned.
That makes me want to respond with a version of the old Lou Grant reaction: "Kid, you've got quirk! I hate quirk." But that's dismissive and unwarranted. It does sound quirky and uplifting, in that pop-culture fantasy mode, a compendium of quickly-sketched stories across many genres and types, for the kind of reader who thinks she loves books more than most people. And there are, of course, a lot of people who think they like books more than most people. If you are one of them - I am, myself - this may be of interest.
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