Realm of the Dead

By Hyakken Uchida and Uchida Hyakken

Realm of the Dead describes the lands of both the living and the dead. In this collection of short stories, they are equally dark and mysterious worlds where logic and reality are subject to constant change and where ideas about identity and self are continually questioned. Considered one of the foremost innovators of Japanese modernism, Hyakken incorporates a distinctly non-Western set of myths and folklore to evoke a society--and a people--on the brink of enormous change.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564784479
• ISBN13: 9781564784476
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.6" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Haunting, lyric

I've never come across anything like it in English. A haunting blend of dream and reality. The reader is always a little off-balance. It has some of the flavor of other magical realism -- Italo Calvino, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Murakami perhaps -- but through a glass much more darkly. Having read the other, negative review that preceded this one, I would caution against trying to read too much into the stories. You're stepping into an Interzone, the usual rules don't apply.