The Bear and the Paving Stone

Toshiyuki Horie · 2000 CE · Short Story · Japanese · Contemporary

A Japanese translator staying in France visits an old friend in rural Normandy, a man living in the shadow of his own history. Their stilted talk circles things neither will say outright, with La Fontaine's fable of the bear as an uneasy key. It won the Akutagawa Prize and appeared in English in 2018.

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