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One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each
One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each
Dec 25, 2025 9:28 AM

Author:Peter MacMillan

One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each

A new edition of the most widely known and popular collection of Japanese poetry.

The best-loved and most widely read of all Japanese poetry collections, the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu contains 100 short poems on nature, the seasons, travel, and, above all, love. Dating back to the seventh century, these elegant, precisely observed waka poems (the precursor of haiku) express deep emotion through visual images based on a penetrating observation of the natural world. Peter MacMillan's new translation of his prize-winning original conveys even more effectively the beauty and subtlety of this magical collection.

Translated with an introduction and commentary by Peter MacMillan.

Reviews

By far the best translation to date

—— Donald Keene

For more than seven centuries, these poems have resonated with countless readers ... [Peter Macmillan's] excellent new translation of these poems makes clear why they have mattered so much for so long ... [revealing] the vivid emotions that have kept the heart of the collection beating all this time

—— TIME

The Female Persuasion is wonderfully dense and wise, a page-turner that succeeds both at character and ideas. It felt true to life

—— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , Guardian

Deft and funny…trenchant, clever, displaying a pitch-perfect recollection of the idealism of early adulthood and what life subsequently does to undo it

—— Emma Brockes , Guardian

From the very first page of any novel by Meg Wolitzer, you feel in safe hands. She is skilful and confident…she is exceptionally gifted in the neglected craft of plotting...like a modern-day Edith Wharton, she has an instinctive understanding that tragedy and comedy are different sides of the same coin... How could you fail to love such a writer?

—— Craig Brown , Mail on Sunday

sympathetically satirises this complicated landscape of contemporary feminism...warm and witty, and necessary...With affection and generosity, Wolitzer exposes the limits of power through a handful of well-meant lives and she leaves us uneasy. The sense that we may have smashed a glass ceiling, but now are standing in the shards, discreetly bleeding

—— Eva Wiseman , Observer

No novelist I can think of has majored on the group portrait with quite such verve, wit and sympathy as Meg Wolitzer

—— Ferdinand Mount , Spectator

Wolitzer is an astute observe of cultural nuance, particularly around gender and inequality

—— Lucy Atkins , Sunday Times

Wolitzer is an irresistibly charming novelist, a keen, affectionate examiner of society

—— Alexandra Schwartz , New Yorker

An ambitious overview of the women's movement...her writing is peppered with wit and her send-up of various sacred cows is often funny

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

Ambitious...startlingly perceptive...full of Wolitzer's trademark wit and insight...strong enough to remind us that we can change the world, one woman at a time

—— Washington Post

There’s much more to admire here as the novel ponders friendship, love and parent-child relationships. But in the end, Wolitzer’s real gift to her readers is a story that feels both timeless and very much of the zeitgeist.

—— Daily Mail

The Female Persuasion is…a gripping novel that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page

—— Erica Wagner , Harper's Bazaar

A remarkable study of how feminism has evolved over the last thirty years and what it means to be empowered in the 21st century.

—— Hailey Maitland , Vogue

Clever and entertaining...incisive without being acerbic, Wolitzer’s novel is unpredictably plotted, persuasively observed and often very funny

—— Anthony Cummins , Prospect

Begins with a campus assault and evolves into an exploration of intergenerational feminism, steeped in the cultural conversation of today… A deft portrayal of the complexity of human identity.

—— Matthew Janney , Culture Trip

The textures of the world Wolitzer describes feel satisfyingly right… Wolitzer holds attention with her warm grasp of character and careful, probing working out of personality under the forces of time and trauma’

—— Sarah Ditum , New Statesman

Meg Wolitzer bores into the barbed tangles of contemporary feminism with disarming charm… Captures the ambition and angst of growing up with warmth and wisdom in a book that’s at once searingly intelligent and gloriously light.

—— Lucy Brooks , CultureWhisper

Meg Wolitzer's tale of feminism's generational differences is much richer than mere polemical tract

—— Lucy Scholes , Independent

An effortless read

—— Stylist

Bustling, large-hearted... The Female Persuasion discusses timely issues of feminism...but does so through fully realised characters

—— Refinery29

it deftly interweaves the political with the personal... clear and smart

—— Emma Jacobs , Financial Times

[Woltizer is] interested in the complexities of being female… This is an unashamedly traditional novel of ideas, not afraid to boldly inhabit the moment we live in

—— Claire Allfree , Daily Telegraph

A significant contribution to Wolitzer’s body of work

—— Alex Clark , Guardian

Wolitzer’s prose is direct and engaging… her characters feel alive and individual

—— Josie Mitchell , Literary Review

My favourite book of the year… Wolitzer deserves more recognition: she is as talented a storyteller as Donna Tartt, as funny as Jonathan Franzen, but she has her own distinct brilliance

—— Rebecca Rose , Financial Times, **Books of the Year**

Wolitzer is an empathy delivery system

—— Financial Times, **FT Readers' Books of the Year**

The end will leave you simmering with impotent rage, which sounds about right for 2018

—— Lucy Hunter Johnston , Evening Standard, **Books of the Year**

There’s lots to enjoy here – the plot is pacy and you’ll come to care and deeply invest in these characters through Wolitzer’s brilliantly sharp prose

—— Ella Walker , Herald Scotland

- Meg Wolitzer captures the zeitgeist like no one else

—— Elle

[W]arm and witty, and necessary… With affection and generosity, Wolitzer exposes the limits of power

—— Eva Wiseman , Observer
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