Masterfully turning the rules of folklore and fable on their head, The Bridegroom Was a Dog is a disarming and unforgettable modern classic. Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from The New Yorker, which praised it as a “fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka.”

The Bridegroom Was a Dog begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean. The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a doglike man. A romantic — and sexual — courtship develops, much to the chagrin of her friends, who have suspicions about the man’s identity.

Format: Hardcover

Author: Tawada, Yoko

Publisher: New Directions

Pub Date: November 25, 2025

Category: Fiction

ISBN: 9780811239967

Evening House Books

Filters

Japanese Translated

Monkey: New Writing From Japan, Vol. 5 – Creatures

The Factory

The Bridegroom Was a Dog

The Emissary

The Hole