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 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 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