Waves at Play and Other Writings

A child tries to finish a picture for his school exhibition, but every place he finds to paint brings another pair of watching eyes. On a fiercely hot beach, young lovers, boasting men, and an anxious narrator reveal themselves in the short dash from changing room to sea.

Other pieces venture into darker territory. A childhood friendship unfolds beneath flowering crabapples, with tenderness, cruelty, and a narrator’s corrections to his own memories. In To Atami, a son’s attempt to retrieve his absent father becomes a drunken family confrontation whose awkward comedy never quite conceals its pain.

Between the stories are a seaside survey of contemporary fiction, extracts from a letter originally composed in English, and an ardent account of a Louise Brooks film.