Tales Grotesque & Curious

Eleven strange, unsettling, and darkly comic stories reveal the brilliance of one of Japan’s greatest modern writers.

In *Tales Grotesque & Curious*, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa turns monks, thieves, servants, scholars, devils, and ordinary people into unforgettable studies of vanity, fear, faith, survival, and moral compromise.

The collection moves across medieval Kyoto, early modern Japan, and China, blending folklore, history, satire, psychological insight, and the macabre. In “The Nose,” a priest’s lifelong embarrassment becomes an unexpected lesson in human cruelty. “The Spider’s Thread” offers a haunting Buddhist parable about selfishness and salvation. “Tobacco and the Devil” transforms temptation into a sly comic fable, while “The Handkerchief,” “Lice,” “The Wine Worm,” and other tales expose the contradictions beneath respectable behavior.

The volume also includes “Rashōmon,” Akutagawa’s famous story of desperation and moral collapse, set beneath the ruined gate of Kyoto.

Elegant, strange, ironic, and often disturbing, these stories showcase Akutagawa’s gift for revealing the darker corners of human nature through sharp observation and unforgettable imagery.

Translated by Glenn William Shaw.

Narrated by Tania Mannion.