These are short stories from an unparalleled icon of modern Japanese literature. Sublimely crafted and shot-through with a fantastical sensibility, they offer dazzling glimpses into moments of madness, murder and obsession. A talented and spiteful painter is given over to depravity in pursuit of artistic brilliance. In the depths of hell, a robber spies a single spider's threadbeing lowered towards him. When a body is found in an isolated bamboo grove, a kaleidoscopic account of violence and desire begins to unfold.
Vividly translated by Bryan Karetnyk, this mesmerising collection brings together a seriesof essential works from the master of the Japanese short story. Ryunosuke Akutagawa