{"product_id":"japanese-ghost-stories-9780241381274","title":"Japanese Ghost Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eBrilliantly entertaining and eerie ghost stories, regarded as major classics in Japan, by the Irish writer and Japanophile Lafcadio Hearn--whose life inspired bestselling writer Monique Truong's novel \u003ci\u003eThe Sweetest Fruits\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Penguin Classic\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living, and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: \"rokuro-kubi,\" whose heads separate from their bodies at night; \"jikininki,\" or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless \"mujina\" who haunt lonely neighborhoods. Lafcadio Hearn, a master storyteller, drew on traditional Japanese folklore, infused with memories of his own haunted childhood in Ireland, to create the chilling tales in \u003ci\u003eJapanese Ghost Stories\u003c\/i\u003e. They are today regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe improbable life story of \u003cb\u003eLafcadio Hearn\u003c\/b\u003e (1850-1904) included a peculiarly gothic childhood in Ireland during which he was successively abandoned by his mother, his father and his guardian; two decades in New Orleans, where he worked as a journalist and was sacked for marrying a former slave; and a long period in Japan, where he became a Buddhist, married a Japanese woman and wrote about ju-jitsu and Japanese aesthetics for a Western readership. His ghost stories, which were drawn from Japanese folklore, appeared in collections throughout the 1890s. He is a much celebrated figure in Japan. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Murray\u003c\/b\u003e (editor\/introducer) is the author of biographies of Lafcadio Hearn and Bram Stoker, and the editor of collections of Hearn's work. He is a former Irish diplomat whose posting to Japan in the late 1970s first ignited his interest in Hearn.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50615592550674,"sku":"9780241381274","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d2c1fc28-2289-49c3-b7f9-98963926c9ba.jpg?v=1732495118","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/japanese-ghost-stories-9780241381274","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}