The Name of the Flower

Over a dozen unsettling and eccentric stories chart the distances between men and women and between people and their memories of the past. Mixing startling visual details and plot twists with subtle changes of hue and texture, these tales of ordinary Japanese families offer vivid portraits of secret unhappiness and betrayal of men trapped by obsession and insecurity, of women finding strength and sorrow in their ability to silently endure.

– a wife’s devoted effort to make her husband more refined is met by a vulgar betrayal
– a fish mysteriously appears in a kitchen one afternoon, and no one but the philandering husband knows why
– a young wife-to-be revels in the attention she gets from her fiance’s assistant, until she finds out what he’s really after
– a man takes a day off work and discovers strange memories int he closets and drawers at home
– a father worries that his daughter, like his own mother, may be incapable of controlling her sexuality

A satisfying blend of literary style and sharp observations on modern domestic life, this collection introduces the late Kuniko Mukoda as a sensitive writer with a calculating, mischievous intelligence.