Someone to Watch Over You

An unsettling, poignant debut novella about unusual connections fostered by the covid pandemic, perfect for fans of sharp literary fiction that reflects and confronts our world

It’s early 2020, and with the world in chaos as covid spreads, two lonely people, both seeking to break with their pasts, meet and start sharing a home.

One is a former security guard who was captured on video knocking down a protester who died soon afterward; the other, a former teacher accused of driving a student to suicide.

In an oppressive atmosphere of tension and fear, the pair avoid direct contact and communicate through notes and their shared presences, close yet distant. Their odd connection, with neither affection nor trust, brings them a kind of privacy and safety they both need – but at what cost? The book’s creeping tension draws out an unforgettable story of disconnection and disruptive change.

Kumi Kimura is a Japanese writer. She won the Literary World Newcomer Award for her debut novel, and has subsequently been shortlisted twice for the Akutagawa Prize and won the Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Prize. Someone to Watch Over You is her first work to be translated into English.

Asa Yoneda is a literary translator based in Bristol, UK, whose work includes The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya and Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto.