Contents: LOULAN - novella FLOOD - novella ALIEN - novella ABOUT THE DESTRUCTIONS CAUSED BY WOLVES - novella IN THE COUNTRY OF RAKSHASI - novella HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF SIMHALA - novella EUNUCH ZHONGHAN YUE - novella THE SMILE OF BAO-SI - novella

Forward The reader holds in his hands translated from Japanese language book of historical stories and stories in which Japan is never mentioned. Moreover, among the heroes of these works there is not a single Japanese. And yet it is a very Japanese book. Its author is a novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and a classic of 20th-century Japanese literature. Yasushi Inoue (1907–1991). His historical novel “Dreams about Russia” (1968), dedicated to the fate of a Japanese man abandoned in Russia during the time of Catherine II, became widely known in Russia. The son of a military doctor, born on the northern island of Hokkaido, Inoue gained literary fame quite late: his first significant work, the story “The Hunting Gun,” was published in 1949. By this time, the author had studied at the University of Kyoto and had a short military service. service in Northern China, fifteen years of work at the Mainichi newspaper. In 1951, Yasushi Inoue decided to devote himself entirely to literature—and worked hard for the rest of his life, creating numerous works in a variety of genres. The main contribution to the writer’s popularity at home and abroad was made by his historical novels, novellas, short stories and essays - primarily those that were dedicated to Ancient China and the lands adjacent to it. In his works one can find elements of historical chronicles, biographies, epics, myths, legends, fairy tales, parables and even fantasy - and most often an amazing combination of these components, which has become a hallmark of Yasushi Inoue's style.