Strange, subtle, emotionally resonant. Nagamatsu’s fiction is consistently excellent.
Kij Johnson, author of At the Mouth of the River of Bees
“You should be here; he’s simply magnificent.” These are the final words a biologist hears before his wife dies at the hands of Godzilla. The words haunt him as he studies the Kaiju (Japan’s giant monsters) on an island reserve, attempting to understand the beauty his wife saw.
“The Return to Monsterland” opens Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone, a collection of twelve fabulist and genre-bending stories inspired by Japanese folklore and pop culture. In “Rokurokubi”, a man who has the demonic ability to stretch his neck to incredible lengths tries to save a marriage built on secrets. The recently dead find their footing in “The Inn of the Dead’s Orientation for Being a Japanese Ghost”. In “Girl Zero”, a couple navigates the complexities of reviving their deceased daughter via the help of a shapeshifter. And, in the title story, a woman instigates a months-long dancing frenzy in a Tokyo where people don’t die but are simply reborn without their memories.
Every story in the collection turns to the fantastic, the mysticism of the past, and the absurdities of the future to illuminate the spaces we occupy when we, as individuals and as a society, are at our most vulnerable.
PURCHASE
“Ghosts, Godzilla, shapeshifters, snow babies; Nagamatsu’s fantastical characters are nonetheless grounded in modern-day conflicts, creating a fascinating and haunting mix of science and myth, past and present. These are stories of gods and monsters walking among us, told with wit, longing, and wisdom.”
“In these perfectly stirring stories, Sequoia Nagamatsu constructs a cartography of eye-stinging wonder.”
“A rich tangle of the familiar and the beautifully new. These are bright inventions, but they will also satisfy our longing for the stories we have always loved. ”
“These stories deftly breathe new life into the myths and pop culture of an older Japan, bringing them into the modern world and directing them in unexpected ways. It’s hard to tell if Nagamatsu holds nothing sacred, or if he holds everything to be. In either case, the effect is the same: these are deft atmospheric romps that a hell of a lot of fun but also worm their way under your skin before you know it. An addictive and compelling debut.”
“If, as I did, you grew up on the likes of Ultraman, Zatoichi, and Godzilla, you’ll feel right at home with, but also challenged by, the stories in Where We Go When All We Were is Gone. It’s an exhilarating debut that serves up every guilty-pleasure pop-culture satisfaction one could hope for while simultaneously reframing and refashioning those familiar low-art joys into something singular, unanticipated, and entirely original.”