"Fun, thought-provoking, engaging, beautifully written, and equally beautifully illustrated; a book to be treasured and savoured and returned to time and time again." Trevor Skingle"The collection of fictional vignettes offers a brilliant understanding of both Japan and the lives that populate it. Japan Stories far exceeds its purpose of translating Japanese culture, and details the breadth of the human condition in a charming, universal and accessible way" – Alex Payne"With exquisite and transformative simplicity, Joso assembles a polychromatic collage whose collective power adds up to very much more that its individual parts." – Steve WhitakerJayne Joso's new book is a collection of stories and short fiction set in Japan. Each concerns a particular character – a sinister museum curator, a son caring for his dementia-struck father, a widow in the far north reflecting on her provincial life,– and tells a compelling story about about them. Together these short narratives become a mosaic of a life in contemporary Japan, its people, its life, its thinking, its character. With the focus of the world on the Tokyo Olympics, Japan Stories provides a window into a country of which we know less than we think. These strikingly crafted and human stories are illustrated with ten images by leading manga artist Namiko.