Garden

Baboons chatter in the zoo. Tadpoles writhe in a pond. A gecko is stuck to the window. And ants are crawling everywhere. Nature runs wild and mysterious in this stunning collection of stories by Hiroko Oyamada in which the everyday reality of the human world, with its social norms and familial ties, slides into something altogether more strange. As children begin to explore the landscape around them and adults are forced to navigate the bumpy terrain of marriage, parenthood and grief, the non-human world pulsates with a life of its own, and humans are revealed to be the most incomprehensible species of all.

Born in Hiroshima in 1983, HIROKO OYAMADA is the author of The Factory, which won the Shincho Prize for New Writers, The Hole which won Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize, and most recently Weasels in the Attic. DAVID BOYD has translated novels and stories by Hiroko Oyamada, Masatsugu Ono, and Toh EnJoe, among others. LUCY NORTH has translated Japanese fiction and non-fiction, including by Taeko Kono, Hiromi Kawakami, Fumiko Enchi, and Natsuko Imamura. Born in Tokyo and raised in Los Angeles, YUKI TEJIMA is the translator of works by Mizuki Tsujimura, Emi Yagi, Kumi Kimura, and Risa Wataya, among others.