The Bridegroom Was a Dog

By: Tawada, Yoko

Masterfully turning the rules of folklore and fable on their head, The Bridegroom Was a Dog is a disarming and unforgettable modern classic. Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from The New Yorker, which praised it as a "fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka."

The Bridegroom Was a Dog begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean. The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a doglike man. A romantic -- and sexual -- courtship develops, much to the chagrin of her friends, who have suspicions about the man's identity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811239969
• ISBN13: 9780811239967
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.2"