First published 2008
On a train through Japan, a young man catches the attention of a blind passenger who somehow sees him. This moment changes everything. An American teacher mourns her Japanese lover's death and feels herself disappearing. Four friends gather on an empty road between rice fields and choose to end their lives together. A disaffected American teenager encounters a red fox that teaches him about compassion. In Tokyo, a girl named Love sits beside a coma patient who dreams of a failed affair. From neon game centers to bamboo groves, from karaoke bars to hidden shrines, these separate lives begin to touch each other in ways none of them understand. Each person searches for connection in a world that often makes no sense. Their stories weave together to reveal how love moves between strangers without their knowledge.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, magical-realism
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: found-family, strangers-to-lovers
Setting: Japan, Tokyo
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Kindle Edition · Bantam