People from My Neighborhood: Stories

Description

In these twenty-six interlinking “palm-of-the-hand” stories, everyday life in a familiar neighborhood quietly tilts toward the uncanny, where lunch menus, office roofs, and local routines become gateways to duels, prophetic dreams, and visitations from ghosts and gods. Hiromi Kawakami introduces a cast of unforgettable inhabitants—an insistent child living under a white cloth, a schoolgirl with unsettling secrets, an old man shadowed by two competing selves, and a diplomat no one has ever seen—each narrative revealing how the ordinary can carry mythic weight. With her signature blend of naïve wonder and sly macabre, Kawakami turns small moments into mysteries of transformation, identity, and the stories communities tell themselves. Nominated for the 2021 Shirley Jackson Award, this collection is a masterclass in how the mundane and the magical can coexist—sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a chill.

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