Red-crowned crane woman

Issue five: flash fiction by Christina Ladd

This week, Christina Ladd offers a new twist on the classic Japanese folktale,
鶴の恩返し (Tsuru no Ongaeshi / lit. Crane’s return of a favour), known commonly in English as ‘The crane wife’. As in many tales of magic, Ladd’s story is one that embodies the old adage that we should be careful what we wish for …

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Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Crane flying over wave, color woodblock, nd, Clarence Buckingham Collection.