Nails and Eyes

Kaori Fujino

sht 2023 · Pushkin Press

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Tense, subtly disturbing Japanese literary horror perfect for fans of Tender is the Flesh and The Vegetarian

An unforgettably creepy child narrator weaves uncanny tales about her new stepmother in this feminist horror novella + short story collection that introduces a unique new voice in Japanese literature

A young girl loses her mother, and her father blindly invites his secret lover into the family home to care for her. As she obsessively tries to curate a pristine life, this new interloper remains indifferent to the girl, who seems to record her every move - and she realises only too late all that she has failed to see.

With masterful narrative control, Nails and Eyes—appearing in English for the first time—builds to a conclusion of disturbing power. Paired with two additional stories of unsettled minds and creeping tension, it introduces a daring new voice in Japanese literature.

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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.

Kendall Heitzman is an associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at the University of Iowa. He has translated stories and essays by Nori Nakagami, Tomoka Shibasaki, and Yusho Takiguchi. He is the author of Enduring Postwar: Yasuoka Shotaro and Literary Memory in Japan (Vanderbilt University Press). His translation of “The Little Woods in Fukushima” by Hideo Furukawa appears in Monkey magazine.