Strange Weather in Tokyo - Softcover

Hiromi Kawakami

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846275105 ISBN 13: 9781846275104

Publisher: Granta Books, 2014

Synopsis

Shortlisted for the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love. Perfectly constructed, funny, and moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.

About this title

Review

'With its flying-waitress cover and kooky title, this Japanese novel - shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize - hints at Murakami-style weirdness. ... Delicate marks of the passing seasons reveal Kawakami's frank debt to classical Japanese poetry, while the odd couple's shared meals will tickle foodie palates. An elegiac sense of speeding time, and yawning distance, drizzles the story - sensitively translated by Allison Markin Powell - with a sweet sadness.' --Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Beautifully written... Expertly translated by Allison Markin Powell, this is a beautifully understated love story, a novel of sadness, longing and gentle humour. The book is a thing of beauty that makes you want to pick it up and start reading. I hope lots of readers will. --A Life in Books blog

Strange Weather in Tokyo is a charming, understated story, played out against Japan's seasonal extremes. Acutely observed, it's a delicious read. --Gloucestershire Echo

Tender, enigmatic, oddly gripping... It's a portrait of an entire culture and a haunting, eccentric meditation on love and loneliness. --'Books of the Year' chosen by Rupert Thomson, The Big Issue

Strange Weather in Tokyo is a charming, understated story, played out against Japan's seasonal extremes. Acutely observed, it's a delicious read. --Gloucestershire Echo

'Kawakami transforms an affecting cross-generational romance into an exquisite poem of time and mutability. This is a delicate and haunting novel' --Boyd Tonkin on the IFFP shortlist, Independent

'Subtle and haunting... Kawakami's prose is warm and often humorous. Allison Markin Powell's masterful translation conveys a deceptively effortless, understated delicacy and dream-like tone. Often enchanting but ultimately heart-breaking, this is an unforgettable evocation of love and loneliness' --Alev Adil, judge of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

'This short, quirky love story and some of the chapters read like extended haiku. Allison Markin Powell's translation is clear and graceful. In its love of the physical, sensual details of living, its emotional directness, and above all in the passion for food, this is reminiscent of Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen' ***** --Independent on Sunday

'As well as being a sweet love story and an exploration of loneliness, Strange Weather in Tokyo is packed with nostalgic Japanese atmosphere' --Bath Life

'True love is celebrated with humour, grace and pathos as the wary narrator recalls her unusual approach to dealing with an overwhelming passion' --'Book of the Year', Irish Times

'As well as being a sweet love story and an exploration of loneliness, Strange Weather in Tokyo is packed with nostalgic Japanese atmosphere' --Bath Life

About the Author

Born in 1959 in Tokyo, HIROMI KAWAKAMI is one of Japan's most popular contemporary novelists. Her novel Drowning won both the Ito Sei Literature Award and Joryu Bungaku Sho (Woman Writers' Prize) in 2000. Her novel Manazuru won the 2011 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize.

ALLISON MARKIN POWELL is a literary translator and editor in New York City. She has translated works by Osamu Dazai, Kaho Nakayama, and Motoyuki Shibata, and she was the guest editor for the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1846275105
• ISBN 13: 9781846275104
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192