Three accomplished collections of short stories are published this spring. The Japanese literary superstar Haruki Murakami presents a master­class in miniaturism in First Person Singular (Harvill Secker, £16.99; Tablet price £15.29). His stories are all told in the first person, and relate surreal and sad events from the point of view of a figure with more than a passing resemblance to the author. His translator, Philip Gabriel, deserves great credit for rendering these stories into taut, poetic English sentences.