Seiko Tanabe

Josee has been in a wheelchair since she was a child, and has lived herlife throughpictures, books, and her imagination. One day, she meets Tsuneo,a college student,and while they clash at first, the two soon grow closerthan expected. She takes thischance to venture outside with Tsuneo toexperience a new world where surprisesawait.

Unable to get around without a wheelchair, the doll-like Josee leads asolitary,housebound existence. But when she meets her new live-in caretaker,a recent collegegraduate named Tsuneo, everything in her life is upended." Josee, the Tiger and theFish" depicts the fragile, strangely eroticrelationship that blossoms between these twoyoung people. In addition to thetitle story, this collection also includes seven shorttales centering onworking women and the myriad loves and partings of their lives.

This book examines and re-imagines the turbulent and intertwined lives of Akiko Yosano (1878–1942) and Tekkan Yosano (1873–1935), two poets who sparked a revolution in the world of Japanese ‘tanka’ (short-verse classical poetry). The author explores their passionate and at times tormented relationship, using documentary sources and their poetry along with her own storytelling abilities in order to evoke the intimate details of their lives, together and apart.