Tales Beyond Konjaku: The Boy Who Collected Stories and the Vanished Girl

by Akiko Moriya

illus. by Miho Satake

More than a thousand years ago, in the turbulent capital of the late Heian period, a resourceful boy named Sōta meets an elderly monk who travels the land gathering tales from near and far. Captivated by the power of storytelling, Sōta begins collecting stories of his own, sharing them with a girl he admires and listening to wandering merchants. But when the girl suddenly disappears, the stories he has gathered take on new meaning.

Inspired by the 11th-century Konjaku Monogatari-shū, a vast collection of setsuwa — Buddhist and secular anecdotal tales — this richly layered novel weaves classical storytelling into a compelling new narrative about the enduring power of stories.

Selected by the Japan School Library Association (2025).

20 x 14 cm, 238 pages, Black-and-white illustrations
First published December 2025