Paprika, By Yasutaka Tsutsui

Yasutaka Tsutsui is the doyen of avant-garde Japanese writers. His work is by turns innovative, thought-provoking and – not least – extremely entertaining. Much of it concerns alternative realities; in relation to Western fiction, Tsutsui stands squarely within the modern and post- modern domain from Franz Kafka to J G Ballard.

Paprika, one of Tsutsui's finest novels, is now translated by Andrew Driver. Fittingly for a writer with marked surrealist influences, the story is all about dreams. The setting is Tokyo's Institute for Psychiatric Research. Major breakthroughs are taking place, using new machines which access the minds of sleeping patients. A couple of top psychoanalysts are in line for the Nobel Prize for this revolutionary innovation. One is the young and beautiful Atsuko Chiba, who uses the equipment at night to cure some of Tokyo's leading citizens of mental trauma.

Atsuko has to be discreet because there are strict restrictions upon the machines, so she disguises herself as an alter ego – the eponymous Paprika. Unfortunately, back at the Institute the machines are being misused by her enemies on the staff, and the most powerful versions have gone missing.

Tsutsui's smooth merging of real and unreal lends the narrative mesmerising qualities. His approach to characterisation plays a part; his cast is schematically drawn, but this lends them archetypal qualities which help to deepen our immersion in the dream worlds he describes. Atsuko epitomises goodness, and is blessed with an ability to rise above the direst situations. Tsutsui's impish black humour comes to the fore when Atsuko foils a rape attempt by a malign colleague, turning around a scenario which would crush lesser mortals.

The action steadily relocates to the characters' sleeping reveries, where anything and everything can happen. Tsutsui's imaginative stamina is unflagging. His standing on the Japanese literary scene cannot be overstated. Let's hope more translations follow soon.