"the author successfully juxtaposes elements of contemporary Japan — in Kawakami’s case, postmodern Japan, with its high-rise apartment buildings, highway service areas, radio stock market reports, and advertising jingles blaring from parade-float loudspeakers — with myths and folklore that gesture toward a lost, pre-modern imaginary." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"A truly fantastical story…rewards with rich imagery that will challenge anyone’s powers of imagination." — Japan Society Journal (UK)

"At once funny and humane. . . the author's estranging fiction is bewitching. If Japan were in need of a Lewis Carroll, look no further." -- South China Morning Post

"Baffling, unsettling and haunting, these stories have a dreamlike atmosphere." — The Lady (UK Magazine)