Maha Harada’s work shines light on the positive side of human nature. Her stories give readers the strength to move forward in their own lives with the same positivity and optimism. When the world is full of turmoil, and the future is hard to predict, we need Maha Harada’s work more than ever.
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Canvas of Paradise
Tim Brown, a curator at MoMA, is one day invited to a Swiss billionaire’s mansion, where he runs into a Japanese researcher named Orie Hayakawa. The two were brought to the mysterious residence to examine a painting bearing striking resemblance to The Dream, a masterpiece by the genius Henri Rousseau. Its owner announces that he will hand over the painting to whomever appraises it correctly- and as a clue, has them read an old, mysterious book. They have seven days to make a judgment. This is an art suspense novel about discovering a painting’s “true” value.
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Guernica Cover up
Picasso’s Guernica: an iconic 20th-century painting and a powerful anti-war symbol. One day in 2003, the Guernica tapestry at the New York headquarters of the United Nations suddenly disappears. A MoMA curator named Yoko Yagami is soon drawn into the scandal of the missing artwork.
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The painter of the century created this shocking masterpiece as the Spanish Civil War tore through his homeland. What did he mean to express? Spanning contemporary New York, Spain, and pre-war Paris, this is an intellectually thrilling tour-de-force! -
Giverny
Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Matisse. Though sometimes ridiculed and seen as heretics, the men of the impressionist movement redefined beauty and boldly ushered in a new era of art. What battles did these artistic geniuses face, and what did they dream of? Narrated by the women of their inner circle, this work offers a glimpse of these four great artists that neither art history nor biography can capture. The artists' hearts and minds, their friendships and love affairs, and the honest intentions behind their work are reborn in this radiant story collection.
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Tossed but never Sunk
It’s the second half of the 19th century, and the Parisian art scene is the peak of luxury. The art dealer Tadamasa Hayashi is accompanied by his assistant, Jukichi, armed with fluent French language skills, and burning with ambition to build a market for ukiyo-e, or Japanese woodblock prints. Soon, the two cross paths with an undiscovered painter who adores Japan and his dutifully supportive art-dealer brother: Vincent and Theodorus van Gogh. From this serendipitous encounter, “the painting that changed the world” is born. These solitary men’s story of love and self-respect deeply touches the heart in this art fiction masterpiece.
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The Dreamer’s Collection
In the era before western artwork had reached Japan, Kojiro Matsukata dreams of introducing the Japanese public to western art. He and a budding art historian named Tashiro are collecting famous artwork in Paris and London when the Second World War breaks out, and they must return to Japan. As the flames of war approach France, a former airplane pilot named Hioki protects and evacuates the paintings in Matsukata’s place. But after Japan’s defeat, the French government seizes the Matsukata Collection as enemy property. Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida is tasked with negotiating the paintings’ return. This moving work is based on the stunning true story of the Matsukata Collection, which forms the core collection of Japan’s National Museum of Western Art.
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Under the Sun and Stars
In the aftermath of World War II, a young, soon-to-be-married army psychiatrist named Edward Wilson is dispatched to Okinawa. Having loved art from a young age and previously picked up a paintbrush himself, Wilson one day finds himself in a mysterious place that he can only describe as a hidden artistic paradise. There, he meets sparkling-eyed artists who take as much pride in their work as Cezanne and Gaugin. This novel is based on the true story of two portraits brought about through this extraordinary encounter.
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SALOME
In decadent, turn-of-the century London, the queer writer Oscar Wilde is at the peak of his stardom. When Wilde asks the young, chronically ill Aubrey Beardsley to illustrate his play, Salome, Beardsley rises to fame overnight. But behind-the-scenes, the relationship between the two becomes a swirling four-way drama involving even Beardsley’s sister and Wilde’s queer lover. This is the story of the love-hate relationship between Oscar Wilde, a darling of the times known for his good looks and proclivity for scandal, and Aubrey Beardsley, a genius painter. This masterpiece of a mystery novel offers a clue to one of art history’s most surprising enigmas.
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Storm & Thunder
Aya Mochizuki, a researcher at the Kyoto National Museum, receives a visit from Raymond Won, a curator from the Macau Museum of Art. He invites her to visit Macau, where she stumbles upon a number of mysterious artifacts. One is a western artist’s oil-paint interpretation of the Japanese national treasure Wind God and Thunder God. Another is an old manuscript containing the signature of Martinho Hara, a member of Japan’s first delegation to Europe, the Tensho Embassy. In the manuscript, she finds four characters, spelling out “Tawara…ya… So…Tatsu-“ the artist who created Wind God and Thunder God. Centering on Wind God and Thunder God, this story crosses both time and place to meet Carravaggio, the baroque genius and Tawaraya Sotatsu, the father of Rinpa painting.
