Take a story and shrink it. Make it tiny so it can fit in the palm of your hand. Carry the story with you, let it sit with you while you eat, let it watch you while you sleep. Keep it safe, you never know when you might need it. In Kawakami's 'palm of the hand' stories the world is never quite as it should be. You'll find great delight spending time with the people in this neighbourhood.

'The interlinking short stories in this collection are fairy tales in the best Brothers Grimm tradition: naif, magical and frequently veering into the macabre' Financial TimesFrom the best-selling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo, here is a collection of darkly playful Japanese micro-fiction.In Kawakami's super short 'palm of the hand' stories the world is never quite as it should be: a small child lives under a sheet near his neighbour's house for thirty years; an apartment block leaves its visitors with strange afflictions, from fast-growing beards to an ability to channel the voices of the dead; an old man has two shadows, one docile, the other rebellious; two girls named Yoko are locked in a bitter rivalry to the death. Small but mighty, you'll find strange delight in spending time with the people in this neighbourhood. 'Offers a delicious combination of intrigue, magic and comedy, like an unusual but satisfying snack. Kawakami continues to show off her prowess as a sharp-witted writer with a keen eye for the unexplored mysteries of humanity' Japan Times

Autorentext
Born in 1958 in Tokyo, HIROMI KAWAKAMI is one of Japan's most popular contemporary novelists. She is the recipient of the Pascal Short Story Prize for New Writers and the Akutagawa Prize. Her novel Drowning won both the Ito Sei Literature Award and Joryu Bungaku Sho (Women Writers' Prize) in 2000. Her novel Manazuru won the 2011 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize. Strange Weather in Tokyo (Sensei no kaban) won the Tanizaki prize in 2001 and was shortlisted for both the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.Ted Goossen is Professor of Japanese Literature at York University in Toronto and has translated many writers including Haruki Murakami.