‘As I lay on the mattress, the white toe pads of the gecko floated up before me, against the vastness of the blue-black night. Rather than a presence, it seemed to me more like a trace, a barely discernible odour that flooded in on the air.’
Short story first published in the literary magazine Shincho (新潮), January 2015 issue, and later included in Oyamada’s short story collection 庭 (Niwa, or 'Garden'), published March 2018.
First published in English translation by Granta in September 2019.
