Like with her previous works in English, her subdued storytelling is softer than Yoko Ogawa's and the spheres from which she draws her subject matter are not as far-flung as Yoko Tawada's, but any of her books are approachable, somewhat enjoyable, and similar in feel to Banana Yoshimoto's. Kawakami slowly builds a familiar cast of characters, including herself; Kanae, her friend and a juvenile delinquent; Hachiro, the youngest of 15 children; Dolly, a girl with magical powers who has returned from America; and a host of weird and weirder adults.

We get a story dedicated to her older sister (a truly creepy tale of cruel sisterly abuse which ends on the image of what a doll’s brains might look like) before Kanae herself is fleshed out more thoroughly in “The Juvenile Delinquent”. The publisher describes People from My Neighborhood as “super short ‘palm of the hand’” stories, a phrase coined by Japanese Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. Kawakami’s is a book to keep on hand and to become intimate with: a book with which readers can have a relationship of their own. People from My Neigh­borhood delivers a heartfelt, beautiful, dreamlike rendition of urban life that is both glorious on its own merits and will emotionally resonate with those of us who, due to the pandemic, have been required to stay at home, kept at arms lengths from our fam­ily, friends, and community.”—Ian Mond, Locus Immensely imaginative with scenarios ranging from lightly humorous and satirical to surreal and downright bizarre, People From My Neighborhood:Stories by Hiromi Kawakami is a wonderful collection of thirty-six interlinked short stories/vignettes. The stories feature a cast of interesting characters, some recurring and some new, from the narrator’s neighborhood -her childhood friend Kanae and Kanae’s sister and others such as the neighborhood Grandma, a dog school principal, Uncle Red Shoes who opens a dancing school,the lady who owns Love, “the tiny drinking place”, the Kawamata family and many others. Grandpa Shadows: of a grandpa who lived on the outskirts of town, with two shadows-- one was docile and submissive, the other was rebellious. Mystical and spooky.The familiarity with these characters, particularly the narrator’s grumpy best friend, Kanae (who early on we learn will join a motorcycle gang and abandon the narrator’s friendship), and her older sister who will one day have statues erected around the world in her honor, ushers you into the increasingly surreal and folklore-like events. There is a sense these are minor myths in the making, hiding in the open to remind us that magic lurks just behind everyday life. Zero-gravity events, pandemics, visits from the gods, lotteries for wishes and more pass with little fanfare, life always returning as it was as if these breaks from reality were another mundane phase of life. It is like hearing fairy tales, never are the fantasy elements questioned but only stated as obvious facts in the mechanisms of life.

Complete with egg-people, teenage gangs, vicious but endearing street dogs, and sociopolitical commentary, Kawakami’s slice-of-life collection of short stories is an exercise in experimenting with absurdism and relationship-driven storytelling. Filled with cheerful uncanniness and bizarre moments that will make you laugh – you will wonder, “Do I really know the people in my neighborhood, apartment, or town?” More than anything, Kawakami expresses that there is magic in places that seem utterly ordinary. It’s an absolute joy to see a writer as keenly insightful as Hiromi Kawakami dabble in surrealism and comedy. At times, People From My Neighbourhood feels like a science experiment. The town grew more and more run down as time passed, but the estate thrived. It seceded from Japan and formed its own armed forces, which sometimes held manoeuvres in Tokyo Bay. From story to story – each one entirely unique but also loosely linked to every other like pictures in a tapestry – a map of the neighbourhood begins to form. Certain homes and streets, and the families who reside there, come into focus and become familiar.

Beyond the Book

Kawakami's book is an intriguing and compelling bitesize read. It's also funny, full of heart and, despite appearances, deeply familiar. It asks the reader to embrace fluidity, but it does so quietly and without insistence. For all of our voyeurism and curiosity, we get the sense that, ultimately, this is a world that will exist and transform with or without witnesses. Book Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Magical Realism, Short Stories And what’s more, when I was a child, didn’t I imagine them as caricatures – witches, old men, seers, rebels, charlatans? It’s as though People From My Neighbourhood reminds us of how we once perceived the world. The telling captures the elaborate fantasy that embellishes the stories of the very old when they recount their lives to the very young (the only people who will understand the magic they have lived, and not scoff). Equally, this neighbourhood is not so unlike our own. Like most, this one is built on whispers, stories and hearsay. The few things uniting its inhabitants are curiosity and gossip. Wondering about the owner of the café “The Love”, the narrator says: “How the woman ever makes a living out of that place is a mystery to us all”. “Us”, the neighbourhood, the unit, brought together by nosy speculation.