Abstract

This autobiographical novel by the author, born in 1983, depicts the struggles of a modern Japanese woman who wants to live a life fulfilled by work, love, and family. Novelist Shie Amano has gone through two divorces and now lives alone with her junior high school daughter in an apartment in Tokyo. She has recently started dating a university student 15 years younger than her whom she met through an interview, and tells her daughter that she wants to live with him. Upon hearing this, the daughter says she wants to leave her mother's house and live with her father, who is Shie's first husband and is related to Riko by blood. Shie is conflicted, wondering why she has to leave someone when she chooses someone else, and why she cannot live with all the people she loves. The only solace she finds in these unstable days is drinking, talking, and eating good food with those closest to her. The people she shares meals with are female writers in the same profession, her lover, her daughter, her ex-husband, and her editor, and through their conversations, the reality of love and family of people living in Tokyo in the coronavirus pandemic is expressed.

Author’s Information

Hitomi Kanehara. She was born in 1983 in Tokyo. Her first work, “Snake with earrings” was awarded the 27th Subaru prize for literature in 2003 and awarded Akutagawa Prize in 2004. It became a bestseller, that was translated and published in many countries. She won the 27th Oda Sakunosuke Prize with “TRIP TRIP” in 2010 and receive the 22th Bunkamura Dhumago prize for literature in 2012. Also she awarded the 57th Tanizai Junichiro prize for literature with “Unsocial distance” in 2021.
Her other works include “A dessert in Paris, a mirage in Tokyo”, “Meet the World” etc.