The Bear and the Paving Stone

About The Bear and the Paving Stone

A haunting world of dreams and memories where everyone ends up where they began – whether they want to or not

Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, this collection of 3 tales of memory in wartime France is perfect for fans of Helen Oyeyemi and Banana Yoshimoto

Owing a debt to French writers from La Fontaine to Proust, the 3 fable-like tales in this volume illuminate stories of loss, memory, and a longing to belong.

There was “something about me” which made him talk about things he didn’t need to talk about, made him expose his wounds. That surely made me more dangerous than a stranger who was totally indifferent.

Visiting a friend in the Normandy countryside, a man is drawn into conversations that plunge him into the complexities of historical chance, religious identity, and his own past. Sharing memories and looking at old photographs, the pair circle around the area’s disturbing wartime history.

A work of great depth and atmosphere, “The Bear and the Paving Stone” is here accompanied by 2 equally striking stories in which:

• a walk along the seashore, upon the anniversary of a death, becomes a reverie on building sandcastles;
• and an innocent break-in at the ruins of an archbishop’s residence takes a turn towards disaster.

About The Bear and the Paving Stone

Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, three dream-like tales of memory and war: part of our Japanese novella series, showcasing the best contemporary Japanese writing

A Japanese man, far from home, travels the countryside of Normandy with a friend – talking about war, literature, and everything in between. As his ideas of his life become more entangled with his personal writing, the pangs of his past and his half-forgotten memories overlap and threaten his peace.

Owing a debt to French writers from La Fontaine to Proust, the three fable-like tales in The Bear and the Paving Stone are stories of loss, memory and a longing to belong.