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|title=Revenge

|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)

|publisher=Vintage

|date=July 2014

|summary=A dazzling and audacious collection of short stories, made much more clever and if anything more disturbing by their all being linked.

}}

A woman waits for a long time at a village bakery, her mind only on the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buy, and the strange reasons that make the purchase so important to her. A boy is invited by a girl at school to a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order for him to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for the first time. Nearby, a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landlady, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots in her vegetable garden. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple of years at least was a step-mum to him, even as she went dotty in talking to herself. Unusual relationships, vegetables, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes for a superlatively clever read.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

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[[Category:Yoko Ogawa]]

[[Category:Stephen Snyder]]