Absorbed in Solitude and Other Stories

A young man imagines the calm sea at Atami while finding one excuse after another to delay leaving Tokyo. A meeting with the woman he loves becomes a contest of jealousy, pride, and embarrassment; a late visit to a friend carries him into a different kind of captivity.

Around this long story, Makino Shin’ichi gathers vivid smaller worlds. A boy discovers what it means to bring down a sparrow. Two baseball friends face separation. An arithmetic lesson dissolves into daydreams and the delicate movements of a dragonfly.

In the adult pieces, an old globe revives memories of a father overseas and exposes a family’s present unease. Village drinking companions attempt a scene from Faust, discovering how little separates rehearsals from everyday quarrels.