The Mysterious Hat and Other Stories

A devil leaves his dark sewer to explore a dazzling city street. Trapped outside, he hides as a hat in an elegant shop—and soon rides on a gentleman’s head, steals his lunch and draws a laughing crowd into a frantic chase.

Toyoshima Yoshio’s three stories move from comic fantasy into the troubled intimacies of adult life. In The Unworthy Brother, a drinker and writer speaks to his younger sister about her approaching marriage, recalling quarrels, tenderness, resentment and his own uncertain idea of freedom.

On the Hill places two lovers beneath a tree in fierce summer sunlight. A distant sea glitters, soldiers march across the plain, and memories of death interrupt a conversation that shifts between fear and happiness.