Ryunosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan's great writers - author of the 'Rashomon’ stories ', who lived through Japan's turbulent Taisho period of 1912 to 1926. Inspired by Akutagawa's stories, essays and letters, this is an extraordinary novel of tales. A passionate and haunting paean to one writer, it also explores the act of writing and the role of the artist in times which darkly mirror our own.
