Japanese cozy fiction, often involving quiet musings and conversations unfolding inside bookstores and coffee shops, is currently the country¡¯s biggest literary trend captivating the West. A decade ago, that soft cultural power belonged to books and shows about the Japanese way of tidying up.

¡°Whispering Rooms,¡± published this spring in English translation by Cathy Hirano, blends both in a novel co-authored by Marie Kondo and Genki Kawamura.

Whispering Rooms, by Genki Kawamura and Marie Kondo. Translated by Cathy Hirano. 215 pages. BONNIER BOOKS, fiction.