The Bench at Sinani’s Bookshop and Other Writings

Why do women writers portray men differently from the way men portray women? What happens when a young woman insists upon choosing her own life? Miyamoto Yuriko explores such questions alongside intimate accounts of reading, friendship, travel, and the changing world around her.

These fourteen works carry the reader from American girls and Greenwich Village writers to Moscow theaters, the Volga, and Japanese art exhibitions. Her reflections on Chekhov’s letters combine literary criticism with the ordinary discomforts and companionship of life abroad. Reports of Soviet cultural activity lead into forceful arguments about Japan’s proletarian movement.

The collection ends with Variety, a quiet story in which a young man and a married woman arrange a cinema outing under the pressures of domestic convention. First published between 1920 and 1930, these complete translations reveal Miyamoto’s shifting interests and distinctive voice, preserving both her convictions and her questions. Brief cultural and textual notes accompany all fourteen works.