This is a small collection of two short stories by the well-regarded Japanese novelist Banana Yoshimoto. The two stories were published together in 1999. The first story, “Hardboiled”, is a ghost story (but not like the other ghost story I read this weekend), in which a young woman goes walking in the woods in order to process her grief over losing an ex-lover. The concept of being “hardboiled” refers to being tough on the inside in dealing with the pain of loss. Through her grief, […]