Yasutaka Tsutsui

It’s the pic­ture of a happy house­hold. The Jimbas are gath­ered around the table, all thir­teen of them, smil­ing and talk­ing cheer­fully over dinner. The maid enters the scene and the mother promptly offers com­pli­ments for her hard day’s work. The chil­dren give her approv­ing glances, their expres­sions marked with appre­ci­a­tion, their faces free of the hos­til­ity that a live-in [ . . . ]