HARLEQUIN BUTTERFLY by Toh EnJoe

Translated by David Boyd

Pushkin Press have really struck gold with their series of offbeat Japanese novellas. I’m five books in and yet to hit a dud. Harlequin Butterfly might just be the weirdest of the lot, a quietly profound meditation on the nature of language masquerading as a surreal puzzlebox mystery. Think Murakami on speed.

From the outset, we are on the trail of Tomoyuki Tomoyuki, a reclusive author with a vast number of books, each written in a different language. On a transatlantic flight, squillionaire A.A. Abrams tell the unnamed narrator of his quest to find this literary enigma, and shows him the butterfly net he uses to catch ideas along the way. Alas, we learn that introduction was an excerpt from one of Tomoyuki’s most famous books. Though it might have still happened. Identities shift. Realities are undermined, creating a constant sense of metamorphosis. The chase is on and the reader must swipe at these narrative threads with their own metaphorical net.

It’s all very cool and meta-textual, in a really fun and often funny way. If you’re even a casual fan of The World’s Most Overrated Writer, you should check this out and see how it ought to be done.

Harlequin Butterfly by Toh EnJoe (Tr. David Boyd)
Pushkin Press, 2024
112 pages