Lottery,” a group of families take turns caring for a neighborhood child who has 14 siblings. In “Brains,” Kanae encourages the narrator to tickle her older sister, a form of torture, because her sister’s nearly blue eyes make her look like a stranger, despite her Japanese features. “The Office” features a gazebo where a man waits for “customers.” The narrator brings a friend named Kanae to the gazebo, who is rude to the man, though they later discover the man has a surprising talent. “Grandma” follows a neighbor who plays cards with a child narrator and asks the child for money, until something causes their dynamic to change. In “The Secret,” the narrator’s life changes upon meeting a child who never ages despite the two spending 30 years together. Kawakami’s magical and engaging collection (after Strange Weather in Tokyo) pulls the reader into a small Japanese community via stories told by unnamed narrators.
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