Where The Wild Ladies Are

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Tilted Axis Press
Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton
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Witty, inventive, and profound, Where the Wild Ladies Are is a contemporary feminist retelling of traditional ghost stories by one of Japan’s most exciting writers.

In a company run by the mysterious Mr Tei, strange things are afoot – incense sticks lead to a surprise encounter; a young man reflects on his mother’s death; a foxlike woman finally finds her true calling. As female ghosts appear in unexpected guises, their gently humorous encounters with unsuspecting humans lead to deeper questions about emancipation and recent changes in Japanese women’s lives.

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Contributor Bio

Polly Barton is a Japanese-English translator and writer based in the UK. Her translations include Butter by Asako Yuzuki, So We Look to the Sky by Misumi Kubo, Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki, and There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura. Her translation of Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai was awarded a 2023-2024 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize. She is the author of Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History, both published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.