In People from my Neighbourhood (Granta, £12.99; Tablet price £11.69), Hiromi Kawakami’s mini­a­ture tales become increas­ingly surreal and macabre. “The Love” is a karaoke bar inhabited by a woman with the face of a demon. Her bland ready meals rarely attract customers, unlike Uncle Round’s boisterous gambling den. In “The Hachiro Lottery”, different families are awarded guardianship of a boy until he finishes school. An elf covered in fur presides over the Music House. Two girls called Yoko are locked in rivalry until one of them dies.