Aoko Matsuda

Polly Barton

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

In this "delightfully uncanny" collection of feminist retellings of traditional Japanese folktales (The New York Times Book Review), humans live side by side with spirits who provide a variety of useful services—from truth-telling to babysitting, from protecting castles to fighting crime. A busybody aunt who disapproves of hair removal; a pair of door-to-door saleswomen hawking portable lanterns; a cheerful lover who visits every night to take a luxurious bath; a silent house-caller who babysits and cleans while a single mother is out working. Where the Wild Ladies Are is populated by these and many other spirited women—who also happen to be ghosts. This is a realm in which jealousy, stubbornness, and other excessive “feminine” passions are not to be feared or suppressed, but rather cultivated; and, chances are, a man named Mr. Tei will notice your talents and recruit you, dead or alive (preferably dead), to join his mysterious company. With Where the Wild Ladies Are, Aoko Matsuda takes the rich, millenia-old tradition of Japanese folktales—shapeshifting wives and foxes, magical trees and wells—and wholly reinvents them, presenting a world in which humans are consoled, guided, challenged, and transformed by the only sometimes visible forces that surround them.

Where the Wild Ladies Are

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When Darkness Loves Us 

Ryo Minenami

Self-serving adults and broken dreams push a teenage boy trapped in a dead-end town closer and closer toward the abyss. Reiji’s life is as miserable as the small town he can’t escape. The most interesting thing that’s ever happened there is a double suicide down by the river. Does Reiji have any power over his fate, or will he too fall into the abyss? Reiji’s mother is checked out, he’s stuck caring for his grandmother with dementia, and his childhood friend treats him like a lackey. Then beautiful, big-city pop star Nagi miraculously shows up working the counter at the local convenience store. Reiji is starstruck. When she offers him the ultimate way out of his claustrophobic existence, will he succumb to temptation…?

Boy's Abyss, Vol. 1

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Aoko Matsuda; Polly Barton

Where the Wild Ladies Are

Elizabeth Engstrom

When Darkness Loves Us

Ryo Minenami

Boy's Abyss, Vol. 1

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Aoko Matsuda; Polly Barton

Where the Wild Ladies Are

Elizabeth Engstrom

When Darkness Loves Us

Ryo Minenami

Boy's Abyss, Vol. 1

Get The App