Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to her former high school teacher, '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.
Strange Weather in Tokyo is perfectly constructed, warmly funny and deeply moving.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781803513140
Number of pages: 192
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
Enchanting, moving and funny in equal measure, this compelling love story is expertly crafted against a backdrop of modern Japanese culture... I [was] captivated... Stylish and unsentimental, a perfect love story - Stylist
I'm hooked... It's interesting enough to read about an aging woman drawn to an older man; when this attraction comes wrapped up in Japanese nostalgia for old fashioned inns, mushroom hunting, refined manners, and Basho, how can a person resist? I can only imagine what wizardry must have gone into Allison Markin Powell's translation - Lorin Stein, Paris Review
Kawakami transforms an affecting cross-generational romance into an exquisite poem of time and mutability.... Delicate and haunting - Boyd Tonkin, Independent
This short, quirky love story has a very distinctive, very Japanese sensibility... Allison Markin Powell's translation is clear and graceful - Brandon Robshaw, Independent on Sunday
A dream-like spell of a novel, full of humour, sadness, warmth and tremendous subtlety. I read this in one sitting and I think it will haunt me for a long time - Amy Sackville
A subtle and haunting portrait... 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, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Judge
Kawakami paints perfectly the lightness and delicacy of modern Tokyo, delivering a love story that breaks hearts - Monocle
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
In quiet, nature-infused prose that stresses both characters' solitude, Kawakami subtly captures the cyclic patterns of loneliness while weighing the definition of love - Booklist
Expertly translated by Allison Markin Powell, this is a beautifully understated love story, a novel of sadness, longing and gentle humour - A Life in Books blog
A book of breathtaking delicacy - Télérama
One of the most beautiful love stories I have read in all my life... Read it and enjoy - La Vanguardia
In equal measures profound and exhilarating - Westdeutsche Zeitung
Charming and understated... acutely observed and surprisingly involving. A delicious read - Hull Daily Mail
A charming, understated story, played out against Japan's seasonal extremes. Acutely observed, it's a delicious read - Gloucestershire Echo
Beautifully written - Farmlane Books
A beautifully-written and moving novel, expertly and sensitively translated by Allison Markin Powell - January in Japan blog
Kawakami crafts an eerie inter-generational romance - Boyd Tonkin, Independent
An extraordinary novella... It is gentle, wise and written in such a hypnotic style it casts a spell upon the reader. Deeply haunting and strangely moving - Kim Forrester, Reading Matters blog
As well as being a sweet love story and an exploration of loneliness, [it] is packed with nostalgic Japanese atmosphere - Bath Life
A funny, ethereal and above all heartfelt love story - Freight Books blog
A quiet and understated novel... Highly recommended for fans of quirky and contemporary translated fiction or Japanese culture - A Little Blog of Books
True love is celebrated with humour, grace and pathos as the wary narrator recalls her unusual approach to dealing with an overwhelming passion - Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
Beautifully written... It has a dreamlike quality and left me with a great love for the characters - Judith Ayles, Newbooks Magazine
Since reading this I am in love with Hiromi Kawakami’s writing. This is such a sweet, delicate and touching book about a relationship between mismatched people. The plot is minimal but there is a dreamlike floatiness... More
This was the first Kawakami book I’d read and thus I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised by such a beautiful, fun, endearing and joyful read.
‘’In the autumn there are dead leaves all over the place and in winter the bare branches are bleak and dreary.’’
A woman and a man meet at their favourite bar. She was one of his students many years ago. Intimacy and...
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