Kobo Abe has one the most macabre senses of humor in the world, mixed with his fevered imagination. This, his only short story collection (translated at least), show off these two attributes. A wide range of tales spread out over his career which could be classified as fables, science fiction, horror, or magic realism. In Abe’s world, people find dead bodies in their apartments, people are turned into plants, dead souls killed by a patrol of soldiers is forced to follow the patrol, a Martian in human form must convince one person he is actually a Martian, a advertising agency follows its own laws of logic, malevolent families invade peoples lives and make them slaves, and a business card develops its own personality. Yes he is treading similar ground to Kafka, Gogol, and Lewis Carroll, but each of these tales retains their own distinct flavor. Belongs on the shelf next to other forgotten tomes of macabre humor and imagination, such as Virgilio Pinera’s Cold Tales, Dino Buzzati’s Restless Nights, Roland Topor’s The Tenant, and any collection of Thomas Ligotti’s work