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(Previously published as The Briefcase, Counterpoint, 2012)
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age.
Book Description: Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, ‘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. Perfectly constructed, funny, and moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.
Books on Asia’s take:
Hiromi Kawakami writes lovingly about Tokyo and its people. Possessing a gift for understatement, she nurses the reader along with small insightful details which culminate in something large, meaningful and beautiful. This brilliant soft touch makes you want to keep reading, and reading, and reading…We’d classify this under the sub-genre of “sensei” novels, where, like Natsume Sōseki’s Kokoro, involves the gentle guidance that can only be found in the benevolent character of a sensei, or teacher.
Another Kawakami book, also translated by Allison Markin Powell is The Nakano Thrift Shop, about a used goods and antiques store in Tokyo and the every day customers who come and go, the strange procurements they bring, and the oddly normal relationships among those who work there.