In a Grove
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
4.14
· 23 ratings · 17 pages · Published: 1922
"In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of events that brings into question humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth.
The story is often praised as being among the greatest in Japanese literature.
Tagged as:
- classics 3
- mystery 3
- crime 3
- 20th century 3
- literary fiction 3
- historical 2
- historical fiction 2
- supernatural 2
- suspense 2
- unreliable narrator 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- audiobook 1
- young adult 1
- anthology 1