Thomas Noah Wood is the pseudonym for the American writer Thomas Dillon, whose name may be familiar to readers of The Japan Times. Dillon wrote about daily life in Japan through the lens of international marriage in “When East Marries West,” a column which ran from 1998 to 2015. Unlike the good-natured humor of his columns, these quirky short stories in “The Keeper of the Dragonflies” veer toward black comedy, although Dillon’s trademark knack for distilling the essence of cross-cultural relationships, romantic or otherwise, is still apparent.