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I really enjoyed these spooky fairy tales with mercurial fairy kings, a woman whose soul was a tree, nefarious floating ghost heads, and more. Apparently Hearn collected these tales over his decades settling into a Japanese life, translating and selecting ones he’d thought would be interesting to a Western audience.

I was fascinated by the life of Lafcadio Hearn as described in the introduction. His peripatetic biography was wild, from tiny Greek Island childhood to London pauper, to Midwestern reporter to chronicler of New Orleans backways, and then ultimately settling in Japan. I think I’ll be reading more about him based in this.

Chapter 1 cover some of the history of data-driven “means testing” for welfare benefit, including early uses of computing in the late 60s and early 70s. Was surprised to hear that it was Ross Perot’s software company that built the early versions. Dude literally became a tech billionaire helping strip poor people of money they desperately needed, and then eventually decided that qualified him to be president. Shit never changes.

A joy to read , even when the stories themselves deal with difficult topics, because of the effortless flow of the narrative in each short tale. As a collection, it gives a kind of kaleidoscopic view of Nigéria: past, present, and future; from hard nosed reality to speculative magical realism; from the homeland to the diaspora. Absolutely loved it and can’t wait to read more from the author.