Abstract

Universal and eternal truths about human existence emerge in bold relief from the reflections of an elderly widow on what at first glance appears to be an unexceptional life. Momoko is 74 years old. Her husband died 15 years ago, and since then she has been living alone in the home they shared in a suburban Tokyo residential community. Lacking anyone to talk to, she gets to thinking back over her life as she enjoys her daily cup of tea, or when sitting alone in a coffee shop, or as she makes a pilgrimage to her husband’s grave by an isolated back route. The reflections on love, self, and meaning that unfold within a lonely old woman’s internal conversations with herself will pull on every reader’s heartstrings.

Author’s Information

Chisako WAKATAKE (b. 1954-) was born in the city of Tōno in Iwate Prefecture, and now resides in Chiba Prefecture. She graduated from the Faculty of Education at Iwate University. She began writing as a full-time homemaker and made her literary debut in 2017 by winning the Akutagawa Prize and Bungei Prize for her mid-length story Ora ora de hitori igu mo (I, I’am Going Alone).