A Break in the Autumn Rain and Other Stories

A girl living in comfort cannot forget the mother she has left behind. When a ring and ribbon fail to console her, a humble plant and two singing insects offer a different kind of reassurance.

A distracted writer breaks a promise, slips out of his house and ends up at the races, where a temperamental mare and an ill-advised flirtation threaten another disaster. In a shaded thicket, a novelist watches his friends from hiding and discovers the cost of his secrecy. Elsewhere, a letter becomes a troubling account of drunken friendship and memories of an earthquake.

Makino Shin’ichi (1896–1936) combines lyrical observation with merciless comedy about vanity, loneliness and ordinary evasions. These four complete works, first published between 1919 and 1929, preserve their abrupt turns and unresolved endings. This new English translation includes notes on literary allusions, names and peculiarities of the Japanese text. AI-assisted translation.