Audiobooks narrated by Ren Hanami

Hiroshima, 8:15: The Lost Memoir Audiobook

"A newly discovered firsthand account of the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath from one of the survivors—a lost classic that brings unprecedented immediacy to our understanding of this world-changing event. The whole city was covered with dark clouds, and conflagrations were breaking out in various directions. Could all of this have happened at once? It was then that black drops of rain, as big as blackberries, began to fall – rain caused by the atomic bomb. I wondered what had happened to my home and church. With a pale face, I ran down the Koi highway… When the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima at 8.15am on 6 August 1945, Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto was just beginning his day with the usual bowl of soybean and rice bran porridge. Unbeknownst to him at that moment, the aftermath that will unfold before him over days and weeks is full of horror, but through his courageous determination to save his family, church and city from total devastation, Tanimoto would become internationally recognised as a hero of Hiroshima. In 1946, he featured in American journalist John Hersey’s seminal book Hiroshima which catapulted Tanimoto into global fame – but it is only now that we have discovered the manuscript that he wrote in his own words. With a powerful introduction from Tanimoto's daughter, Koko Kondo, a renowned peace activist in her own right, What Divides Us is a remarkable eyewitness account of this devastating moment of history. Although written only a couple of years after the bomb, the manuscript had been lost for many decades and was only recently discovered in a university archive. Today, over eighty years later in a world fraught with conflict, Tanimoto’s story is a moving and powerful reminder of how the strength, love and resilience of the human spirit will always triumph over the things that divide us. “A stunning historical discovery and a heartrending testimony.” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of American Prometheus © Kiyoshi Tanimoto 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026"

Kiyoshi Tanimoto (Author), Brian Nishii, Fred Sanders, Ren Hanami (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Tokyo Summer

"A charming and vibrant true story about an unforgettable summer in Japan! Abby lives in the United States and loves comics, zines, and punk music. Yuuko lives in Japan and loves manga, American movies, and creating art. When Yuuko visits New York City and sees a comic that Abby made, she writes a letter to Abby and they become pen pals. Later, Abby takes the opportunity to enroll in a summer university program in Japan, and the two girls get the chance to meet in person. What follows are charming and funny adventures in Tokyo as Abby and Yuuko explore the city together. Things get even more exciting when they decide to combine their talents and make a comic to sell at Comiket, one of the largest comics conventions in the world. This will be an extraordinary summer of life-changing friendship!"

Abby Denson (Author), Alison Hiroto, Brian Nishii, Cenophia Mitchell, Eileen Stevens, Erin Lin, Jodie Harris, Josh Hurley, Khristine Hvam, Michael Crouch, Ren Hanami (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration

"'An indispensable, important anthology, edited with heart and sharp insight. This should be on the bookshelf of every American who loves the Constitution, and who is willing to fight to defend it.' -Rachel Maddow "An essential volume" -Hua Hsu, The New Yorker The collective voice of Japanese Americans defined by a specific moment in time: the four years of World War II during which the US government expelled resident aliens and its own citizens from their homes and imprisoned 125,000 of them in American concentration camps, based solely upon the race they shared with a wartime enemy. A Penguin Classic This anthology presents a new vision that recovers and reframes the literature produced by the people targeted by the actions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to deny Americans of Japanese ancestry any individual hearings or other due process after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. From nearly seventy selections of fiction, poetry, essays, memoirs, and letters emerges a shared story of the struggle to retain personal integrity in the face of increasing dehumanization - all anchored by the key government documents that incite the action. The selections favor the pointed over the poignant, and the unknown over the familiar, with several new translations among previously unseen works that have been long overlooked on the shelf, buried in the archives, or languished unread in the Japanese language. The writings are presented chronologically so that readers can trace the continuum of events as the incarcerees experienced it. The contributors span incarcerees, their children born in or soon after the camps, and their descendants who reflect on the long-term consequences of mass incarceration for themselves and the nation. Many of the voices are those of protest. Some are those of accommodation. All are authentic. Together they form an epic narrative with a singular vision of America's past, one with disturbing resonances with the American present."

Frank Abe (Author), Frank Abe, Greg Watanabe, Keone Young, Ren Hanami, Traci Kato-Kiriyama (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mockingbird Summer: A Novel

"A powerful and emotional coming-of-age novel set amid the turmoil and profound changes of the 1960s by the bestselling author of West with Giraffes. In segregated High Cotton, Texas, in 1964, the racial divide is as clear as the railroad tracks running through town. It’s also where two girls are going to shake things up. This is the last summer of thirteen-year-old Corky Corcoran’s childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new “grown-up” novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. America’s take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America’s life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph! When Corky asks America to play with her girls’ softball team for the annual church rivals game, it’s a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm. As tensions escalate, it fast becomes a season of big changes in High Cotton. For Corky, those changes will last a lifetime. Set on the eve of massive cultural shifts, Mockingbird Summer explores the impact of great books, the burden of potential, and the power of friendship with humor, poignancy, and exhilarating hope."

Lynda Rutledge (Author), Ren Hanami (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi

"Awarded an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Picture Book Honor, this stunning audiobook brings to life the imagination of Japanese American artist, Isamu Noguchi. If you are Isamu, stones are the most special of all. How can they be so heavy? Would they float if they had no weight? Winner of the Theordor Seuss Geisel Award in 2020 for Stop! Bot!, James Yang imagines a day in the boyhood of Japanese American artist, Isamu Noguchi. Wandering through an outdoor market, through the forest, and then by the ocean, Isamu sees things through the eyes of a young artist . . .but also in a way that many children will relate. Stones look like birds. And birds look like stones. With exquisite prose, Yang translates the essence of Noguchi so that we can all begin to see as an artist sees."

James Yang (Author), Ren Hanami (Narrator)

Audiobook

Inheritors

"'This splendid story collection is a sword through the heart.'--Ben Fountain From the O. Henry Prize-winning author comes a heartbreakingly beautiful and brutal exploration of lives fragmented by the Pacific side of World War II. Spanning more than 150 years, and set in multiple locations in colonial and postcolonial Asia and the United States, Inheritors paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of its characters as they grapple with the legacies of loss, imperialism, and war. Written from myriad perspectives and in a wide range of styles, each of these interconnected stories is designed to speak to the others, contesting assumptions and illuminating the complicated ways we experience, interpret, and pass on our personal and shared histories. A retired doctor, for example, is forced to confront the horrific moral consequences of his wartime actions. An elderly woman subjects herself to an interview, gradually revealing a fifty-year old murder and its shattering aftermath. And in the last days of a doomed war, a prodigal son who enlisted against his parents' wishes survives the American invasion of his island outpost, only to be asked for a sacrifice more daunting than any he imagined. Serizawa's characters walk the line between the devastating realities of war and the banal needs of everyday life as they struggle to reconcile their experiences with the changing world. A breathtaking meditation on suppressed histories and the relationship between history, memory, and storytelling, Inheritors stands in the company of Lisa Ko, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Min Jin Lee. This audiobook contains a PDF family tree from the text."

Asako Serizawa (Author), Akie Kotabe, Catherine Ho, Feodor Chin, Greta Jung, Nancy Wu, Ren Hanami (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Ren Hanami

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