Skip to product information
1 of 1

PAPER + INK

In Dreams

In Dreams

The Very Short Stories Of Ryunosuke Akutagawa

ISBN: 9781911475569
Stock available

Regular price $15.99 AUD
Regular price $19.99 AUD Sale price $15.99 AUD
Sale Sold out
Taxes included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

In Dreams brings together fifty-one works for the first time in English by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, the “father of the Japanese short story” and one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.



Deftly translated by Ryan Choi, these stories and vignettes (plus two short plays) all have radical brevity in common, demonstrating that Akutagawa was an early and prescient master of what we now call “flash” fiction and non-fiction. With a striking economy of means, the author gives us vivid, eccentric, feeling characters, young and elderly, learned and unpolished, urban and rural. Akutagawa’s observations and notes – on dreams, on being impersonated, on mountain towns, winter nights, university life and, poignantly, the Great Kantō Earthquake – are as rich and evocative as his stories, with which they share a mesmerising quality.



First published in Japan between 1914 and 1927 (some posthumously), these works have been overlooked in favour of Akutagawa’s longer tales, which have formed the basis of his reputation in the West. In translating them, Choi rounds out our understanding of this master stylist.


By Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Translated by Ryan Choi

Imprint: PAPER + INK

Release Date:

Format: PAPERBACK

Pages: 192

View full details

Author Bio