The Bridegroom Was a Dog

By Yōko Tawada

Book Overview

Masterfully turning the rules of folklore and fable on their head, The Bridegroom Was a Dog is a disarming and unforgettable modern classic. Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from The New Yorker, which praised it as a "fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka."

The Bridegroom Was a Dog begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean. The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a doglike man. A romantic -- and sexual -- courtship develops, much to the chagrin of her friends, who have suspicions about the man's identity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811239969
• ISBN13: 9780811239967
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 80 Pages

Customer Reviews

Creative and disturbing

I'm thankful to have some translations of this amazing writer of Japanese fiction. These stories provide a rich and surreal reflection on gender and cultural identities and the final story is one of the best depictions of feeling out of place, whether living with a new family or in a new country (in this case both). Sorry to see that this is out of print, but happy that "Where Europe Begins" is now out.

Wonderful Book!

If you love good writing, you will love this book. As Kafka was rebuked by the first readers of his day only to become one of the most influential writers of this century, so too Tawada is walking an unmarked road that will eventually gain the accolades it deserves.