The latest addition to my website is Yōko Ogawa‘ s 猫を抱いて象と泳 [Swim with an Elephant Holding a Cat]. Our hero is brought up by his grandparents but remains a loner. One day he meets a former bus driver, now massively overweight, who teaches him chess, both how to play and the philosophy behind it. However our hero has a quirk – he goes under the table, considers his move and then comes out to play it. The fancy chess club rejects him because of this. When the bus driver inevitably dies, he is accepted into another club which has been given an automaton by a wealthy benefactor and as he has stopped growing he is able to hide inside it and play chess against all comers. He will later move to an old peoples’ home, carrying the automaton with him where he soon fits in with the large group of chess enthusiasts. Ogawa tells an excellent story of a boy, seemingly an outcast who finds his place in playing chess while hidden from his opponent. And, yes, the story has an elephant and cat in it.