400 pages; hard cover; partial color

In the first volume (of two) of Moto Hagio's Otherworld Barbara, Tokio discovers a phantom island named Barbara, there's a missing geneticist, an eccentric clergyman, a grandmother granted temporary youth, a psychologist killed by a freak tornado and more. Hagio offers a sci-fi explanation for these seemingly random paranormal elements, and makes it all matter with believable characters in complex and subtle relationships. This book won the "Nebula Award of Japan" (Nihon SF Taish Award) in 2006.