No modern Japanese writer was more idolized than Shiga Naoya. The Paper Door and Other Stories showcases the concise, delicate art of this writer who is often called "the god of the Japanese short story." Doyen of Japanese letters Donald Keene ranks some of Shiga's stories "among the most brilliant achievements in this genre by any twentieth-century Japanese writer." Shiga's unique style is concise and simple, with no unnecessary words. With the subtlest of gestures, he evokes the fullness of experience.

Lane Dunlop's masterly translation of seventeen of Shiga's finest stories has...