Night Train to the Stars

Dark and whimsical tales from one of Japan's most beloved early twentieth-century writersJapanese fairy tales - enchanting, enigmatic stories of animals, human beings and the great natural world.Dark and innocent, sublime and whimsical, Miyazawa's stories have the ageless feel of the best fairy tales. There are animal allegories such as 'The Ungrateful Rat' where a rude rodent insults all the objects he meets - until he meets the Rat Trap. There are morality tales such as 'The Restaurant of Many Orders', where two hunters become the hunted. There are also transcendent stories of childhood and mortality like Miyazawa's best-known 'Night Train to the Stars', where a magical steam train carries children through the night and up to the heavens.These stories reveal the unique brilliance of one of Japan's most beloved early twentieth-century writers.WITH A FOREWORD BY DAVID MITCHELL AND AN INTRODUCTION BY KAORI NAGAI'Kenji Miyazawa fables are international-class' David Mitchell'For readers who relish the disturbing material of fairy tale, the specificity and surprise of tanka, collisions of the everyday with the supernatural and glimpses of Japan right on the brink of industrialization, Kenji Miyazawa's masterly stories will be a delight' New York Times'Few works have given me so much pleasure (and hard work) as the tales of Miyazawa Kenji ... more genuine originality, and a more universal appeal, than almost anything else I have done.' John Bester, translator

For readers who relish the disturbing material of fairy tale...Kenji Miyazawa's odd, masterly stories will be a delight New York Times
Kenji Miyazawa fables are international-class -- David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas
Miyazawa moves you to sorrow, to laugh, chuckle, marvel - he makes you live -- Hiroaki Sato
A marvelous writer who deserves to be much better known in English Kirkus
Miyazawa seems to have been something of a genius Observer
A humble and gifted writer Time
[Miyazawa] had stories for many of our basic human vices, and for our basic forms of goodness, too. And this only scratches the surface of his work's appeal... Everything in Miyazawa's work seethes with life. Each leaf, flower, blade of grass, and berry seems to have its own special action. Paris Review
Superb fables... in the prettiest edition of Miyazawa yet Times Literary Supplement
Thanks to the blend of pin-sharp, bright-hued backdrops with outlandish happenings and wholesome messages, Ghibli-movie fans should feel at home Spectator
This Japanese writer found fame for his poetry and short stories only after his death in 1933. At last, this sublime collection introduces English-speaking readers to his curious and whimsical world Monocle

Kenji Miyazawa (Author)Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was born and raised in Iwate, a rural part of Northern Japan, largely cut off from the modern world. As a boy he was fascinated by glimpses of the modern industrial world - train lines and telegraph poles running into the distance - and he hoarded scientific information. His stories often contain fantastical descriptions of landscape alongside technological details. He was also deeply connected to the folk tales of Japan and interested in both Buddhism and Christianity.After graduation from agricultural college, he moved to Tokyo to write and work as a proofreader. When his sister became ill, he returned to Iwate to care for her and remained there for the rest of his life. He devoted himself to the education and protection of the local farming community, even eating the same poor diet in solidarity with his neighbours contributing to his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 37. Only two of Miyazawa's works were published during his lifetime. His success and fame as a writer came posthumously but his poetry and stories are popular in Japan to this day.

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