The Bear and the Paving Stone

<strong>Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, three dream-like tales of memory and war</strong>

Visiting a friend in the French countryside, a man finds himself cast into the quandaries of historical whim, religious identity, and seeing without sight; a walk along the seashore, upon the anniversary of a death, becomes a reverie on building sandcastles; and an innocent break-in at the ruins of an archbishop's residence takes a turn towards disaster.

In three stories that prove the unavoidable connections of our past, Toshiyuki Horie creates a haunting world of dreams and memories where everyone ends up where they began - whether they want to or not.

<strong>Toshiyuki Horie</strong> (born 1964) is a scholar of French literature and a professor at Waseda University. He has won many literary prizes, including the Mishima Yukio Prize, Akutagawa Prize (for <em>The Bear and the Paving Stone</em>), the Kawabata Yasunari Prize, the Tanizaki Jun'ichiro Prize and the Yomiuri Prize for Literature (twice).