An anthology from the C19th to the present, ingeniously and painstakingly edited by Rubin whose brief to himself and to colleagues was that the stories selected should be unforgettable and resonant. Not every great Japanese author is represented here, though many are. The thematic ordering of the stories (‘Modern Life and Other Nonsense’, ‘Japan and the West’, ‘Nature and Memory’, ‘Dread’ and more) acts as an unobtrusive guide in a world probably unfamiliar to most of us.
Includes a tremendously knowledgeable essay by Haruki Murakami.
