Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami ( translated by Ted Goossen) is a fascinating collection of short stories that revolve around themes of transformation, human behavior and emotion and surrealism.

In the first story Hokusai (3/5), we follow a strange encounter between a depressed young man and a person who claims to have once been an octopus. In Dragon Palace (4/5), a young woman is visited by her great-grandmother, who was once a god who used a creative method of manipulating her followers. Fox’s Den(3/5) follows the relationship between a fifty-three-year-old caregiver and her elderly patient. In Mole (5/5), we meet an anthropomorphized who holds an office job in the human world and shelters unhappy and lonely human beings in his home in an underground hole. We follow a married young woman, unhappy with her life and interactions with her boyfriend, neighbors and the deity that inhabits her kitchen in The Kitchen God (4/5). The Roar (3/5)chronicles a young boy’s life as he grows u in the boy grows up in the successive care of his older sisters, each of whom is very different. We meet a woman who is in a relationship with her four-hundred-year-old ancestor in Shimazaki (3.5/5). A woman who was once asea horse recalls her life on land, her yearning for the ocean and her thoughts about her husbands and children, one of whom is like her in Sea Horse (5/5).

With simple language and striking imagery and symbolism, the author takes us on an enthralling journey with unique characters and their interesting (to put it mildly!) backstories. The stories are inspired by folklore and myth and heavily rely upon metaphors and magical realism to present the human condition and the similarities and differences in human and animal instincts. Though I can’t say that I enjoyed all the stories in equal measure, overall, Hiromi Kawakami does not disappoint!

Many thanks to Stone Bridge Press and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this collection of stories. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. ( )

Dragon Palace, written by Hiromi Kawakami and translated by Ted Goossen, is a wonderful collection of her early short stories, both profound and captivating.

I won't paraphrase other reviews and commentary on her work, already done, but I will suggest reading an interview with her from the The New Yorker, July 3, 2023, which starts with discussing "The Kitchen God" and moves on to talking about Dragon Palace and particularly the use of animals in many of the stories. While not essential to appreciating these stories, it does offer some great insight on what she was doing and why. Also the topic of communalism in Japan.

What struck me in many of the stories is the juxtaposition of the fantastical (animals being given human characteristics) and the everyday (like the kitchen mentioned above). Once you buy into the fantastical, many of the works are almost like slice-of-life vignettes, but, for me anyway, with more meaning than most others.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy stories that touch on the mystical or mysterious without becoming completely immersed in a fantasy world. This is our world and we are meant to identify with it.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )