(Ebook) Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Polly Barton (translation) ISBN 9781593766917, 1593766912

(Ebook) Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Polly Barton (translation) ISBN 9781593766917, 1593766912

Where the Wild Ladies Are is populated by these and many other spirited women—who also happen to be ghosts. This is a realm in which jealousy, stubbornness, & other excessive “feminine” passions are not to be feared or suppressed, but rather cultivated; and, chances are, a man named Mr. Tei will notice your talents & recruit you, dead or alive (preferably dead), to join his mysterious company. 

In this witty & exuberant collection of linked stories, Aoko Matsuda takes the rich, millenia-old tradition of Japanese folktales—shapeshifting wives & foxes, magical trees & wells—& wholly reinvents them, presenting a world in which humans are consoled, guided, challenged, & transformed by the only sometimes visible forces that surround them.

Aoko Matsuda is a writer & translator. In 2013, her debut book, Stackable, was nominated for the Mishima Yukio Prize & the Noma Literary New Face Prize. In 2019, her short story ‘The Woman Dies’ (from the collection The Year of No Wild Flowers), published on Granta online, was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award. Her novella The Girl Who Is Getting Married was published by Strangers Press in 2016. She has translated work by Karen Russell, Amelia Gray & Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese.

Polly Barton is a Japanese literary translator.