Strange Weather in Tokyo. Hiromi Kawakami

This is a reissue of a poetic, compact novel by celebrated Japanese author, Hiromi Kawakami (the original 2012 Counterpoint edition was titled The Briefcase (9781582435992); Strange Weather in Tokyo is the title of the wildly successful UK edition (Granta) Strange Weather in Tokyo was Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014 and won the Tanizaki Prize in 2001 This reissue will coincide with Europa's publication of Kawakami's The Nakano Thrift Shop (9781609453992, June 2017) and Counterpoint's re-release of Manazuru , another lauded Kawakami novel (9781640090187 August 2017) «[In Japan] we have something called 'palm-of-the-hand stories,' brief and strangely evocative pieces of fiction so short they might fit in your palm…conjuring an underlying, unseen world that lies beyond with just a brief description or a few words.» —Hiromi Kawakami The two rereleased novels complement each other: both are concise, poetic meditations on the cyclic patterns of loneliness and love–one protagonist is in the city, the other is on the seaside "Each chapter of the book is like a haiku, incorporating season references to the moon, mushroom picking and cherry blossoms…I cannot recommend Strange Weather in Tokyo enough, which is a testament to the translator who has skillfully retained the poetry and beauty of the original." —The Japan Society