Word Book

by Mieko Kanai

Like the surfaces of a jagged crystal, each story in the collection shows us an entirely different, distorted facet of a whole. Playing games with the basic units of both life and fiction--the solid certainties of the self, the world around us, and the words we use to describe these things--Mieko Kanai creates a reality where nothing is certain, where a little boy going out to run errands for his mother might find that he's an adult, and his mother...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564785661
• ISBN13: 9781564785664
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An excellent addition to any international fiction collection

A short story is all that's needed to reflect the simplicity of the human experience. "The Word Book" is a collection of short stories from acclaimed Japanese writer Mieko Kanai, deftly translated by Paul McCarthy as to keep the soul of her writings intact through the cultural divide - which isn't as vast a gulf as one might think. "The Word Book" is an intriguing insight into humanity through fiction, and an excellent addition to any international fiction collection.