Night Train to the Stars

Apr 27, 2025 2:48 PM

Author:Kenji Miyazawa,John Bester,David Mitchell,Kaori Nagai

Japanese fairy tales - enchanting, enigmatic stories of animals, human beings andthe great natural world.

Dark and innocent, sublime and whimsical, Miyazawa's stories have the ageless feel of the best fairy tales. There are animal allegories such as 'The Ungrateful Rat' where a rude rodent insults all the objects he meets - until he meets the Rat Trap/ There are morality tales such as 'The Restaurant of Many Orders', where two hunters become the hunted. There are also transcendent stories of childhood and mortality like Miyazawa's best-known 'Night Train to the Stars', where a magical steam train carries children through the night and up to the heavens.

These stories reveal the unique brilliance of one of Japan's most beloved early twentieth-century writers.

WITH A FOREWORD BY DAVID MITCHELL AND AN INTRODUCTION BY KAORI NAGAI

'Kenji Miyazawa fables are international-class' David Mitchell

'For readers who relish the disturbing material of fairy tale, the specificity and surprise of tanka, collisions of the everyday with the supernatural and glimpses of Japan right on the brink of industrialization, Kenji Miyazawa's masterly stories will be a delight' New York Times

'Few works have given me so much pleasure (and hard work) as the tales of Miyazawa Kenji [...] more genuine originality, and a more universal appeal, than almost anything else I have done.' John Bester, translator

Reviews

For readers who relish the disturbing material of fairy tale...Kenji Miyazawa's odd, masterly stories will be a delight

—— New York Times

Kenji Miyazawa fables are international-class

—— David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

Miyazawa moves you to sorrow, to laugh, chuckle, marvel - he makes you live

—— Hiroaki Sato

A marvelous writer who deserves to be much better known in English

—— Kirkus

Miyazawa seems to have been something of a genius

—— Observer

A humble and gifted writer

—— Time

[Miyazawa] had stories for many of our basic human vices, and for our basic forms of goodness, too. And this only scratches the surface of his work's appeal... Everything in Miyazawa's work seethes with life. Each leaf, flower, blade of grass, and berry seems to have its own special action.

—— Paris Review

Superb fables... in the prettiest edition of Miyazawa yet

—— Times Literary Supplement

Thanks to the blend of pin-sharp, bright-hued backdrops with outlandish happenings and wholesome messages, Ghibli-movie fans should feel at home

—— Spectator

This Japanese writer found fame for his poetry and short stories only after his death in 1933. At last, this sublime collection introduces English-speaking readers to his curious and whimsical world

—— Monocle

Six enchanting examples in the best tradition of storytelling . . . A treat for the
nines-plus.

—— Newbury Weekly News

I fell in love with it . . . an important, essential, beautiful collection of stories.

—— thebooksmugglers.com

The talented Jamila Gavin is an author to watch and these refreshingly original and exciting stories are guaranteed to enchant children of every age.

—— Lancashire Evening Post

Blackberry Blue and Other Fairytales is a beautifully written collection of stories that belongs on pretty much everybody's bookshelf. The descriptions that the author gives of these wonderful worlds are just magical and it is so easy to lose yourself in those words. Even though the stories are fairly short I fell deeply into the world created by the author every time and ended up feeling disappointed at the end of each story because I didn't want it to end . . . These stories are beautiful and magical and are perfect for older children and grown-ups alike.

—— onceuponaseries.blogspot.co.uk

An extraordinary and charming read for any young girl or boy.

—— Formby Books

It is the storytelling and the language that gives the collection the power to entrance; to be drawn into the spell of the story . . . I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the reading.

—— Teaching English Magazine

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