Nails and Eyes

Three stories: one novella and two short stories. Literary horror. Although this is not classic horror, it is a very subtle horror. While reading, we experience uneasiness, and we have this unsettling feeling.

This edition includes:

* Nails and Eyes (novella)

My favorite of all three. The narrator is an adult, and she tells the story of her father’s girlfriend when the narrator was a child. 2nd person’s POV works surprisingly well here.

* What Shoko Forgets (short story)

The short story is about a woman recovering after a stroke in a medical facility. Every night, a mysterious man visits her, but her memories are blurry because her short-term memory is affected.

* Minute Fears (short story)

 A son is upset because he believes the playground is cursed and no one should be there past 4:44.

The author won Akutagawa Prize for novella Nails and Eyes.

Goodreads

 

Details:

• author: Kaori Fujino
  
• full title: Nails and Eyes
  
• genre: novella, short stories, literary fiction, horror
  
• format/type: bookfiction
• country: Japan
  
• topics: #literaryhorror
  
• publisher: Pushkin Press
  
• publish date: September 5, 2023
• pages: 112
  

My Rating of the Book:

• content: 💙💙💙💙

Excerpt from the Book:

About the Author: 

 

Kaori Fujino, a lifelong resident of Kyoto, is best known for fiction that reimagines tropes from horror, science fiction, Hollywood thrillers, urban legends and fairy tales. She holds an MA in aesthetics and art theory from Doshisha University. In 2013, Fujino was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prominent literary prize, for Nails and Eyes. In the fall of 2017, she was in residence at the University of Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program. Her stories have appeared in English translation in Granta, Monkey and the US-Japan Women’s Journal.