Author(s): Hiromi Kawakami; Michael Emmerich (Translator)

General Fiction

"Part ghost story, part meditation on life and death, family and self . . . captivating and suspenseful." --Booklist

Twelve years have passed since Kei's husband, Rei, disappeared and she was left alone with her three-year-old daughter. Her new relationship with a married man--the antithesis of Rei--has brought her life to a numbing stasis, and her relationships with her mother and daughter have spilled into routine, day after day.

Kei begins making repeated trips to the seaside town of Manazuru, near Mount Fuji, a place that jogs her memory to a moment in time she can never quite locate. Her time there by the water encompasses years of unsteady footing and a developing urgency to find something.

Manazuru is a profound, precisely delineated exploration of the relationships between lovers and family members. With a poetic style that embraces the surreal and the fantastical, Manazuru paints the portrait of a woman on the brink of her own memories and future.

"Kawakami has a remarkable ability to obscure reality, fantasy, and memory, making the desire for love feel hauntingly real." --Publishers Weekly