Kenji Nakagami's "The Cape"

[Don Best]

Several of Kenji Nakagami's stories were adapted to screenplays, including a
story from the following collection. Thought it might be of interest to some
of you...

Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, CA announces the publication of 

Kenji Nakagami's award winning,
"The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto"

Translated by Eve Zimmerman, Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese
Literature, Boston University.

Nakagami's startling, vigorous writing depicts the ghetto life of Japan's
outcaste class (burakumin) he knew intimately. In shocking contrast to the
West's perception of a controlled and Zen-like Japan, young buraku workers
struggle with incest, rape, murder, and suicide. Women use sex to control
and escape, their many children fathered by a variety of men. In a network
of alleys and ditches, these villagers are bound by complex blood ties that
are both comforting and oppressive.

Kenji Nakagami (1946-1992) won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in Japan for
his novella "The Cape." Born into an outcaste (burakumin) community in
Japan, he was the first in his neighborhood to get an education. "If Japan
hadn't been defeated in the War, I wouldn't have become what I am today. I
was the first one to get my letters. It was like being the first person to
speak. I remember it as a child; people thought I was very bright because I
could read my own name." He is considered one of the most important postwar
writers in Japan, and one of the only of prominence to reveal the dark side
of a racist Japanese society.

includes The Cape, House on Fire, and Red Hair
5 x 7", 180 pp, ISBN 1-880656-39-6, $12.95

For more information you may visit
http://www.stonebridge.com/capefolder/capeadv.html

Stone Bridge Press will be in Boston at the Association for Asian Studies
Conference, booth #79, where the "The Cape and Other Stories from the
Japanese Ghetto" will arrive directly from the printer.

Thank you for your time and interest,

Don





Don Best
Stone Bridge Press
Publishers & Distributors of Japan-related Books & Software
Visit our website at http://www.stonebridge.com