From vulnerability to violence, Yukiko Motoya enchants with ‘The Lonesome Bodybuilder’
Like a bouquet of exotic flowers, the stories in "The Lonesome Bodybuilder" are varied and full of surprise, starting out with mundane situations and then turning strange in a way that feels uniquely Japanese.
No stories for the squeamish in Asa Nonami's 'Body'
In each macabre tale from the short story collection "Body," Asa Nonami zooms in on a particular superficial fixation of modern society and proceeds to follow a "what if" question down a twisted rabbit hole.
'The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories': Memorable shorts from the greats of modern literature
From Haruki Murakami to Natsume Soseki, "The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories" serves up a feast of literature, a smorgasbord of over 30 widely varied modern Japanese writers.
'Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy': Between the fantasy and reality of Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai packs wry humor and warm humanity into seven short stories, as his collection, "Blue Bamboo," inventively blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy, by Osamu Dazai, Translated by Ralph F. McCarthy.184 pages KODANSHA, Fiction. The first and last stories ...
