Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone

Nagamatsu’s (How High We Go in the Dark) wonderfully weird debut collection of short stories is now available in audio, narrated by Brian Nishii and June Angela. These 12 stories, inspired by Japanese folklore and pop culture, reveal an astonishing world populated by monsters and fabled creatures. “The Return to Monsterland” is the story of a biologist who studies Japan’s legendary giant monsters and is haunted by memories of his wife, who was killed by Godzilla. Nishii brings a note of bitterness to “Rokurokubi,” about a man who can stretch his neck for kilometers. He poignantly reads “Girl Zero,” detailing a couple’s fraught attempt to bring their dead daughter back to life. Acting as a foil to Nishii, Angela is perfectly if unsettlingly perky as the narrator of “The Inn of the Dead’s Orientation for Being a Japanese Ghost,” an upbeat and frank orientation to the afterlife. Nishii and Angela enhance these stories with spot-on pronunciations and apt characterizations.