Two brilliant, multi-layered stories from the winner of the Kenzaburo Oe Prize: part of our Japanese novella series, showcasing the best contemporary Japanese writing

In two stunning tales by novelist-playwright Toshiki Okada, characters stagger and thrash, bound by a generational hunger for human connection. On the eve of the Iraq War a couple find unexpected deliverance -  fleeting and anonymous - at a love hotel. And wheels spin as a woman aches for something more from her husband, even as she knows she has enough.

Snapshots of moments high and low, these stories introduce us to an unsettlingly honest voice in contemporary Japanese fiction.

Toshiki Okada is a hugely admired playwright, director and novelist. Born in Yokohama in 1973, he formed the theatre company "chelfitsch" in 1997. Since then he has written and directed all of the company's productions, practising a distinctive methodology for creating plays, and has come to be known for his use of hyper-colloquial Japanese and unique choreography. His play Five Days in March, on which the first story in The End of the Moment We Had is based, won the prestigious Kishida Drama Award. His works have been translated into many languages around the world.