In Matsuda’s collection, familiar ghosts are treated as commonplace: They are neither surprising nor frightening as they comfortably situate themselves in the modern world
Category: Short Stories
First Book—The Short Story Collective
A thirteen-part journey through contemporary Japan taking in themes as disparate as mental illness, Buddhism, the human drive for validation, workplace harassment, cults, tourist pollution, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A thirteen-part journey through contemporary Japan taking in themes as disparate as mental illness, Buddhism, the human drive for validation, workplace harassment, cults, tourist pollution, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Review—Things Remembered and Things Forgotten
A delightful book of short stories from Kyoko Nakajima, author of The Little House, and winner of the Naoki Prize
Recollections and our desire to remember things a certain way blur our reality and intrude on our ability to see the present clearly.
Review—Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch
A modern recasting of stories surrounding Japan’s famous mountain witch.
(Stone Bridge Press, June 22, 2021) Review by Jann Williams Over two-thirds of Japan is covered with forested mountains. Traditionally these are sacred places, viewed as dwelling places of the dead and ancestral spirits, and as a liminal space between this world and the other world. Yama, the Japanese word for ‘mountain,’ is reflected in More…
Review—The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories by Rebecca Otowa (Tuttle Publishing, March 2020) Reviewed by Renae Lucas-Hall This collection of fifteen short stories provides a delightful portrayal of urban and rural life in Japan of the past and present. Rebecca Otowa shows remarkable talent as she glides through a series of eclectic More…
Review—Cake Tree in the Ruins
NEW RELEASE! Moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex.
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The Cake Tree in the Ruins, by Akiyuki Nosaka (Transl. Ginny Tapley Takemori) Pushkin Press (Nov. 13, 2018) Reviewed by Suzanne Kamata As an American reader, conditioned to expect happily-ever-after endings, or at least those in which justice is served, I found this to be an odd and disturbing book. From the titles of stories More…