The Village Beyond the Mist

From the bestselling, Batchelder Award-winning author and translator of Temple Alley Summer and The House of the Lost on the Cape comes the fantastic adventure that first inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved film, Spirited Away.

Lina’s father had suggested she go 'someplace different' for the summer, and she's beginning to wish she hadn’t listened. She could be at her grandma’s house in Nagano now, instead of trudging through a forest in search of a town that might not even exist. But when a gust of wind carries off her umbrella, it leads Lina down a secret path between the trees to a strange and incredible world. In the hidden village of Misty Valley, centaurs roam the cobblestone streets and gnomes visit shops stuffed with spellbooks and enchanted desserts. All magic has a dark side, though, and sometimes even sorcerers need a human’s helping hand.

Now, fifty years after its debut and decades of blockbuster success in Japan, Sachiko Kashiwaba’s acclaimed novel is available in English and certain to delight readers of all ages.

'Kashiwaba's novel is indeed transporting...Pick up this book and be spirited away.' – Gregory Maguire, The New York Times

About the Author

Sachiko Kashiwaba is a prolific writer of children’s and young adult fantasy whose career spans more than four decades. Her works have garnered the prestigious Sankei, Shogakukan, and Noma children’s literature awards, and her novel The Village Beyond the Mist inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. Her works have recently been animated as the films The Wonderland and The House of the Lost on the Cape, and her novel Temple Alley Summer, illustrated by Miho Satake and translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa, won the American Library Association’s 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award. She lives in Morioka, Iwate.

About the Translator

Avery Fischer Udagawa grew up in Kansas and studied English and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She holds an MA in advanced Japanese studies from the University of Sheffield. She has studied at Nanzan University, Nagoya, on a Fulbright fellowship, and at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama. She writes, translates and works in international education near Bangkok, where she lives with her bicultural family.

About the Illustrator

Miho Satake is a Japanese artist and illustrator. She is best known for illustrating the Japanese editions of several classic children’s books including Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, three books in the Kiki’s Delivery Service series by Eiko Kadono, and the twentieth-anniversary edition of the Harry Potter series. In addition to illustrating classic children's literature, her work spans a wide range of genres, including fantasy and realism.