Review
------
'With its flying-waitress cover and kooky title, this
Japanese novel - shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize -
hints at Murakami-style weirdness. ... Delicate marks of the
passing seasons reveal Kawakami's frank debt to classical
Japanese poetry, while the odd couple's shared meals will tickle
foodie palates. An elegiac sense of speeding time, and yawning
distance, drizzles the story - sensitively translated by Allison
Markin Powell - with a sweet sadness.' --Boyd Tonkin,
Independent
Beautifully written… Expertly translated
by Allison Markin Powell, this is a beautifully understated love
story, a novel of sadness, longing and gentle humour. The book is
a thing of beauty that makes you want to pick it up and start
reading. I hope lots of readers will. --A Life in Books blog
Strange Weather in Tokyo is a charming, understated
story, played out against Japan's seasonal extremes. Acutely
observed, it's a delicious read. --Gloucestershire Echo
Tender, enigmatic, oddly gripping... It's a portrait of an
entire culture and a haunting, eccentric meditation on love and
loneliness. --'Books of the Year' chosen by Rupert Thomson, The
Big Issue
Strange Weather in Tokyo is a charming,
understated story, played out against Japan's seasonal extremes.
Acutely observed, it's a delicious read. --Gloucestershire
Echo
'Kawakami transforms an affecting
cross-generational romance into an exquisite poem of time and
mutability. This is a delicate and haunting novel' --Boyd Tonkin
on the IFFP shortlist, Independent
'Subtle and
haunting... Kawakami's prose is warm and often humorous. Allison
Markin Powell's masterful translation conveys a deceptively
effortless, understated delicacy and dream-like tone. Often
enchanting but ultimately heart-breaking, this is an
unforgettable evocation of love and loneliness' --Alev Adil,
judge of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
'This
short, quirky love story and some of the chapters read like
extended haiku. Allison Markin Powell's translation is clear and
graceful. In its love of the physical, details of living,
its emotional directness, and above all in the passion for food,
this is reminiscent of Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen' *****
--Independent on Sunday
'As well as being a sweet love
story and an exploration of loneliness, Strange Weather in Tokyo
is packed with nostalgic Japanese atmosphere' --Bath Life
'True love is celebrated with humour, grace and pathos as the
wary narrator recalls her unusual approach to dealing with an
overwhelming passion' --'Book of the Year', Irish Times
'As well as being a sweet love story and an exploration of
loneliness, Strange Weather in Tokyo is packed with nostalgic
Japanese atmosphere' --Bath Life
About the Author
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Born in 1959 in Tokyo, HIROMI KAWAKAMI is one of
Japan's most popular contemporary novelists. Her novel Drowning
won both the Ito Sei Literature Award and Joryu Bungaku Sho
(Woman Writers' Prize) in 2000. Her novel Manazuru won the 2011
Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize.
ALLISON MARKIN POWELL is a literary translator and editor in New
York City. She has translated works by Osamu Dazai, Kaho
Nakayama, and Motoyuki Shibata, and she was the guest editor for
the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders.