Mysterious Setting

A madcap, darkly comic novel about the strange fate of a tone-deaf girl who just wants to sing, from a Japanese literary star

“Abe's superpower is to transform everything he touches into exciting literature.” — Kotaru Isaka, author of Bullet Train

This surreal, twisty novel presents a provocative portrayal of sibling competition and the exploitation of social outcasts.

Shiori knows at heart that she’s a troubadour. She may be completely tone-deaf, but she won’t let that stop her living a life dedicated to music. Even when her dominant older sister, Nozomi, forces Shiori to accept that her wild singing provokes only revulsion, she decides to forge a career as a lyricist instead.

At eighteen, she moves to Tokyo to pursue her dream. Isolated and struggling in this unfamiliar city, Shiori seeks connection online, where her trusting outlook leaves her vulnerable to exploitation – with potentially explosive results.

This page-turning literary fiction from a Japanese star is perfect for fans of the wild worlds and unforgettable creations of Mieko Kawakami and Sayaka Murata.

Kazushige Abe is one of Japan’s pre-eminent contemporary writers. A graduate of the Japanese Film School in Tokyo, he worked as an assistant director before turning his hand to writing. Since winning the Gunzo New Writers’ Prize for his first novel, American Night, he has been awarded several of Japan’s most prestigious literary prizes, including the Sei Ito Award, the Mainichi Culture Award, the Akutagawa Prize and the Tanizaki Prize.

Michael Emmerich teaches Japanese Literature at UCLA. He is the highly acclaimed translator of twenty books, including Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s First Snow on Fuji and Dandelions and Banana Yoshimoto’s Asleep, Goodbye Tsugumi and Hardboiled & Hard Luck. His scholarly works include The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature.