The Fate of a Political Prisoner and Other Writings

A political prisoner escapes Ishikawajima Prison, takes refuge as a village teacher and then a monk, and finds that the police have not forgotten him. Kunieda Shirō follows his changing disguises and the deductions that bring the pursuit to its conclusion.

Two essays turn from adventure to the literary marketplace. Through questions, answers, and pointed observations, Kunieda discusses popular fiction, pure literature, detective stories, public taste, and the responsibility of writers to convey contemporary ideas.

Amakusa Shirō’s Sorcery transforms the leader of a seventeenth-century Christian uprising into the center of a tale of magic, belief, and deception. The Wife’s Flight offers a different kind of surprise, as a writer’s account of his domestic troubles becomes entangled with an actress and a hidden film camera.