A Perfect Day to Be Alone
A Novel
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- $189.00
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- $189.00
Descripción editorial
The English-language debut of a prize-winning Japanese author, this touching, subtly funny novel evokes the daily struggles and hopes of two women from different generations.
When her mother emigrates to China for work, 20-year-old Chizu moves in with 71-year-old Ginko, an eccentric distant relative, taking a room in her ramshackle Tokyo home, with its two resident cats and the persistent rattle of passing trains.
Living their lives in imperfect symmetry, they establish an uneasy alliance, stress tested by Chizu’s flashes of youthful spite. As the four seasons pass, Chizu navigates a series of tedious part-time jobs and unsatisfying relationships, before eventually finding her feet and salvaging a fierce independence from her solitude.
A Perfect Day to Be Alone is a moving, microscopic examination of loneliness and heartbreak. With flashes of deadpan humor and a keen eye for poignant detail, Aoyama chronicles the painful process of breaking free from the moorings of youth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young woman spends a year adrift in Aoyama's elegant English-language debut. Surly 20-year-old Chizu Mita moves in with her distant relative, Ginko Ogino, in Tokyo after Chizu's mother leaves for a teaching job in China. Chizu tries to needle the 71-year-old woman for her quirks, such as decorating a room with photos of her deceased cats, but Ginko is unflappable. Chizu gets a job as a kiosk attendant at the nearby rail station and starts dating coworker Fujita, though they don't have much to talk about (their meals are "quiet and peaceful, like the unruffled surface of a lake"). As the year passes, Chizu's mood never thaws, despite Ginko's efforts, such as inviting the young woman on outings with her new boyfriend, a ballroom dancer. Aoyama adeptly conveys Chizu's loneliness and how her unvoiced emotions drive her attempts to pull others into her misery. The result is a notable tale of arrested development.
