TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Although becoming a household name in her home country has never seemed a realistic ambition for Japanese author Mieko Kanai, she has nonetheless managed to captivate overseas readers with her uncanny, often mesmerizing style of prose.

Kanai, who has a narrow but dedicated following in Japan, recently saw her name appear toward the top of a list compiled by a major British betting firm of likely contenders for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature.

Known for her detailed descriptions and surrealistic writing style, Kanai, 77, saw her status jump following the publication last year of her 1997 work "Mild Vertigo" as translated by British-born writer Polly Barton.

In early October, just before the announcement of the Nobel Prize winner, Ladbrokes ranked Kanai 13th in its bookie odds to claim the award. She trailed compatriot and perennial betting favorite Haruki Murakami, 75, who ranked second, but was higher ranked than eventual winner Han Kang, 54, of South Korea.

In contrast with Kanai's lackluster reception at home, the English translation of her book is winning her accolades abroad.

At the age of 19, Kanai was nominated for the Osamu Dazai Prize for her short story "Love Life" before winning the Gendaishi Techo Prize for poetry the following year.

Although she gained notice early in her career as a fiction writer, poet and literary art critic, Kanai never took off in Japan except among a coterie of literary enthusiasts.

Her distinctive writing style can be jarringly abstract. Her sentences will sometimes run on for pages, often making the subject vague. Despite these challenges, several English translated publications of Kanai's works have been released over the years.

Published last year by Fitzcarraldo Editions, "Mild Vertigo" tells the tale of an unremarkable housewife leading an unremarkable life in a modern Tokyo apartment with her husband and two sons. The story follows her everyday conversations with family and friends that merge with the raging inner monologue of her lonely life.

A British publisher founded in 2014 that has translated and published the works of several eventual Nobel Prize winners ahead of their awards, Fitzcarraldo Editions has seen its name recognition rise dramatically in recent years.

"When I first read it, I felt an intensity as if my thought process was hijacked by the style of writing. I tried to convey that sense," recalled Barton, 40, about translating "Mild Vertigo."

Overseas reviewers of the book are not short on praise.

"I began to wonder whether I had always thought this way, whether this book was making me aware of the true nature of my mind for the first time. Such is the mesmerizing wonder of Kanai's prose, as translated by Polly Barton," wrote novelist Claire Oshetsky in a 2023 New York Times review.

When asked about the warm reception of "Mild Vertigo" abroad as compared with Japan, Kanai said, "I am not happy writing novels (for) Japan," explaining that the novels in her own language she has written thus far, which do not have clear-cut themes, have been ignored by Japanese book reviewers for a long time.

"But reviewers (in U.S. press) have raised the issue of 'how to write a novel,' which I thought was important," she said.

In recent years, works that question the state of society and project the suffering and anger of minorities have captured the zeitgeist in the domestic and international literary scenes.

In contrast, Kanai's works have a unique literary appeal that transcends gender and nationality, with a focus on a sense of joy in reading and writing.

Kanai hopes "Mild Vertigo," her first among six published translated works since "Indian Summer" in 2012, has set the stage for more to come for her overseas audience.

In the meanwhile, currently out of print, the Japanese version of the novel, "Karui Memai," will be released anew as part of Kodansha Co.'s Bungei Bunko series in January 2025.

"I shouldn't say this, but I enjoy re-reading my novels when I go back and look at them. I'd love to see some of my other works translated as well," Kanai said.

(By Sho Hirakawa)