The best Japanese short stories : works by 14 modern masters : Kawabata, Akutagawa and more
(Book)

Fourteen distinct voices are assembled in this one-of-a-kind anthology tracing a nation's changing social landscapes. Internationally renowned writers like Yasunari Kawabata, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Junichi Watanabe are joined by three notable women writers whose works have not yet received sufficient attention--Kanoko Okamoto, Fumiko Hayashi and Yumiko Kurahashi. Highlights of this anthology include: Kafu Nagai's bittersweet portrait of a privileged family's expiring existence in 'The Fox' ; Ango Sakaguchi's heartening celebration of postwar chaos in 'One Woman and the War' ; Fumiko Hayashi's unabashed exploration of female sexuality in 'Borneo Diamond' ; Junichi Watanabe's chilling assessment of alienation and social dislocation in 'Invitation to Suicide' ; Gishu Nakayama's look at an out-of-place prostitute recovering at a hot-spring resort in 'Autumn Wind'...The Best Japanese Short Stories offers fascinating glimpses of a society embracing change while holding tenaciously onto the past." --publisher's website.

Englisht translation from the Japanese.