Sarcoma and Other Stories

A malignant growth becomes a dying laborer’s enemy. A locked house appears to contain a suicide, but a boy detective notices evidence that the police have missed. A shop clerk, burdened by a secret theft, sees a pursuer wherever he turns. Across these six stories, blood, illness, and fear connect intimate suffering with the problems of criminal investigation.

Kosakai Fuboku brings a physician’s attention to the body into tales of revenge, hereditary disease, ruined love, and uncertain evidence. His explanations can be chillingly rational, yet conscience and obsession repeatedly disturb the apparent security of scientific judgment. In “A Mistaken Expert Opinion,” the danger comes from the medical authority on which a court depends; in “The Cup of Blood,” a wedding ceremony becomes the scene of a dreadful reckoning.

A physician and an important writer of early Japanese detective fiction, Kosakai Fuboku lived from 1890 to 1929. This collection offers a new English translation of six complete works, with concise notes on period terms, literary references, and outdated medical claims. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.