The Fox’s Window and Other Stories

We at Moulin Review were proud to learn that Toshiya Kamei’s translation of Naoko Awa’s ‘Blue Shells”, which was published in our webjournal, will be published in “The Fox’s Window and Other Stories,” in which Kamei brings Awa’s work to English-speaking readers for the first time.

The collection uses traditional fairy tale structure and themes to comment on virtues like altruism, modesty, and persistence. The stories are unexpected despite their conventional elements, placed in surreal, provincial settings.

These fresh takes on the morality tale can be startlingly honest, as in the case of the girl who says, “Ask your mother to make me a rabbit … I’m not pretty. Everyone teases me about my freckles. I’d rather be a rabbit.”

The book itself is beautiful: a nice size, with enchanting cover art by Dallasite Amane Kaneko, and ghostly floral patterns on selected pages. The collection is appropriate for children as well as adults.

The whimsy and expressiveness of this collection cannot be overstated. “The Fox’s Window and Other Stories” is available for preorder on amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Foxs-Window-Other-Stories/dp/1608010066/