[COMPLETE] Cleanup: In the Miso Soup

[Drace]

There are errors to clean up with the book In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami.

1. First US Edition: In the Miso Soup (ISBN 9784770029577)

- Ralph McCarthy needs to be added with the Translator role.

- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the jacket. Please note that the description begins with an extended quote that spoils the book’s most pivotal scene, so as per Goodreads’ rules around spoilers, I have skipped the quotation and gone directly to the description.

It is just before New Year’s.

Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo’s sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank’s behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It isn’t until the second night, however, in a scene that will shock you and make you laugh and make you hate yourself for laughing, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life.

Kenji’s intimate knowledge of Tokyo’s sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of “compensated dating” and “selling it” among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about on every page. Kenji is our likable, if far from innocent, guide to the inferno of violence and evil into which he unwillingly descends – and from which only Jun, his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, can possibly save him. . . .

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2. Current US Edition: In the Miso Soup (ISBN 9780143035695)

- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the back cover. Please note that the description begins with an extended quote that spoils the book’s most pivotal scene, so as per Goodreads’ rules around spoilers, I have skipped the quotation and gone directly to the description.

It's just before New Year’s. Frank, an American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife. But Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion – that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It is not until later, however, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life.

From postmodern Renaissance man Ryu Murakami, master of the psycho-thriller and director of Tokyo Decadence, comes this shocking, hair-raising roller-coaster ride through the nefarious neon-lit world of Tokyo’s sex industry.

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3. UK Paperback: In the Miso Soup (ISBN 9780747578888)

- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the back cover:

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

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4. ACE Creation

So, it looks like the UK edition is getting a brand new Alternate Cover Edition. The cover art for the paperback has been updated on both the UK and Australian versions of the publisher’s site, and in the Google Image results, the Australian version of the site has it labeled as 17 hours ago as of me typing this message: https://www.google.com/search?q=97807...

An ACE of ISBN 9780747578888 needs to be created. The information should be as follows:

TITLE: In the Miso Soup
AUTHOR: Ryū Murakami
TRANSLATOR: Ralph McCarthy
ISBN-10: 0747578885
ISBN-13: 9780747578888
ASIN: 0747578885
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
DATE PUBLISHED: January 2025
NUMBER OF PAGES: 192
FORMAT: Paperback
DESCRIPTION [note: oftentimes an ACE’s description is different from the one on the publisher’s website. I’m using the publisher site for this, but as the UK ACE data filters out to other sites, this is subject to change]:
A rollercoaster ride from the cult master of the psycho-thriller

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's red light district.

As Frank's behaviour becomes increasingly unsettling, Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous intentions.

Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends into the troubling waters of Frank's mind, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

EDITION LANGUAGE: English
COVER ART: https://res.cloudinary.com/bloomsbury... // https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/in-the-...

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5. UK Ebook: In the Miso Soup (ISBN 9781408806371)

- The cover art on Goodreads is very small and low-quality. Higher-quality art is available on the publisher site: https://res.cloudinary.com/bloomsbury... // https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/in-the-...

- The description is incorrect. It should be the same as in Entry 4.

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6. UK Kindle: In the Miso Soup (ASIN B003URRN0K)

- This is incorrectly using the US paperback’s cover art. Correct art here: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/8... // https://amzn.eu/d/9nGJEuM

- The description is incorrect. It should be the same as Entry 4.

[Drace]

Bump.

[Drace]

Bumping.

[Bec]

[1]-[5] done.

I don't have time to finish up [6]. However, replacing covers is a violation of Goodreads policy. I can come back and create an ACE with the cover currently available on Amazon. Otherwise, if you have a source for the cover being completely incorrect, contact support.

[Drace]

Bec wrote: "[1]-[5] done.

I don't have time to finish up [6]. However, replacing covers is a violation of Goodreads policy. I can come back and create an ACE with the cover currently available on Amazon. Oth..."

You can tell that #6's cover art is incorrect because it has the Penguin logo on it in the top left corner. The book has never been published by Penguin in the UK, only by Bloomsbury.

[Bec]

Good catch. All done.

[Drace]

Thanks for the help!