The Cape
and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto
Winner of the Akutagawa Prize
An award-winning translation of the classic novella about discrimination and generational dysfunction in Japan.
Born into the burakumin—Japan's class of outcasts—Kenji Nakagami depicts the lives of his people in sensual language and stark detail. The Cape is a breakthrough novella about a burakumin community, their troubled memories, and complex family histories. Includes "House on Fire" and "Red Hair."
Kenji Nakagami (1946-92) was a prolific novelist and short story writer who was admired as much for his prose style as his depictions of the burakumin. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for "The Cape" in 1976.
Eve Zimmerman is Assistant Professor of Japanese literature at Wellesley College and received the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for Translation in 1992.
