A review by interlibraryloan
Book of Tokyo: A City in Short Fiction by Osamu Hashimoto

3.0

An anthology of contemporary Japanese short stories all placed in Tokyo, 'The Book of Tokyo' was a delight to read. Michael Emmerich notes in the introduction that one of the great pleasures of being in Tokyo is "a sense of disorientation that blends seamlessly into a seemingly opposite sense of rootedness, of being at home" and many of the stories in this book did just that. A diverse collection, despite the centrality of the location and some overlapping themes, that introduced me to a few authors that I am hopeful to read more from in the future.

Of the collection my favorites were Banana Yoshimoto's 'Mummy', Toshiyuki Horie's 'The Owl's Estate', Nao-Cola Yamazaki's 'Dad, I Love You,' and Shūichi Yoshida's 'An Elevator on Sunday.'