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Folktales of monsters and gods and weirdness from Tono in Japan, originally collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, presented here in a graphic novel adaptation. The art is wonderful and the stories are delightful, even (maybe especially) when they seem unfinished. I enjoy the way the creator inserts himself into the framing narrative.

In this surrealist novel, full of images from alchemy and astrology and occult lore, two people try to find each other, but sometimes they can’t even find themselves. The stone door of the title is both a barrier and an opening. Very different in tone from Carrington’s novel The Hearing Trumpet, and not a light read. Stories within dreams within manuscripts within stories, with characters slipping across boundaries and transforming into others. Carrington challenges conventional notions of narrative, language, gender, and the self. This is a book I could read many times and get something new from it each time. It has a werewolf, which is always a plus.