Reviewed by Koi Kye Lee

Title: Good Night Papa, Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere

Author: Simon Rowe

Pages:191

Publisher and date of publication: Atlas & Jones. Co (2016)

Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is a collection of stories written by Simon Rowe. His stories have appeared in publications such as TIME Asia, The New York Times, The Australian, The South China Morning Post, among others. Rowe is currently teaching creative writing and media studies to English language learners at university level.

Born and raised in New Zealand and Australia, Rowe has lived in Japan for more than twenty years.  He writes from Himeji, a city in the Kansai region. The city is famous for the spectacular Himejijo, the Himeji Castle. Perched on a hilltop, the castle is also known as the White Heron Castle (Shirasagijo) due to its elegant, white appearance.

The title story in this collection, “Good Night Papa”, which was adapted for screenplay and subsequently won the Asian Short Screenplay Contest in the United States in 2013, is also set in Himeji.