Realm of the Dead

Forty-eight short stories—or more accurately, fables and vignettes—make up the two collections gathered in this volume, which is the first English translation of this highly regarded Japanese modernist writer. In these stories, unsuspecting, usually passive narrators suddenly find themselves in mysterious, sometimes life-threatening, often embarrassing situations, though things were perfectly safe and normal only moments before. In "Santo Kyoden," when the young apprentice to a famous comedy writer opens the door for "a very small person," his apprenticeship comes to an unexpected end. In "The Leopard," a caged leopard escapes to chase and kill a group of bystanders, the last one realizing he's the butt of a joke he can't understand. In "The Dance of the Invasion of King Ranryo," a man comes home from a performance of traditional dance, and, in a drunken fit, invokes the same spirit he has just seen on stage, much to the dismay of his wife and neighbors. Like Zen koans, these stories end with surprising abruptness. Events unfold without apparent rhyme or reason, as if motivated by a hidden inner logic, leaving the reader to fathom their moral and meaning. The results both frustrate and expand Western expectations of fiction. (Apr. 18)