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5.0
108 reviewsOriginally published in 2007 as ひとり日和 (Hitori biyori)
Winner of the 136th Akutagawa Prize (2007)
The English-language debut of a prize-winning Japanese author, this touching, subtly funny novel evokes the daily struggles & hopes of two women from different generations.
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Spring
It was raining when I arrived at the house.
The walls of my room were lined with cat photos, set in fancy frames just below the ceiling. They started on the left as you went in, continued above the window on the far side of the room & extended halfway down the right-hand wall… The whole room had the austere atmosphere of a family altar.
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When her mother emigrates to China for work, twenty-year-old Chizu moves in with 71-year-old Ginko, an eccentric distant relative, taking a room in her ramshackle Tokyo home, with its two resident cats & the persistent rattle of passing trains.
Living their lives in imperfect symmetry, they establish an uneasy alliance, stress tested by Chizu's flashes of youthful spite. As the four seasons pass, Chizu navigates a series of tedious part-time jobs & unsatisfying relationships, before eventually finding her feet & salvaging a fierce independence from her solitude.
A Perfect Day to be Alone is a moving, microscopic examination of loneliness & heartbreak. With flashes of deadpan humour & a keen eye for poignant detail, Aoyama chronicles the painful process of breaking free from the moorings of youth.
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Nanae Aoyama, born in 1983, is an acclaimed Japanese fiction writer. Her literary debut, Light of Windows, won the Bungei Prize in 2005. Aoyama was awarded the 136th Akutagawa Prize for her novel A Perfect Day to Be Alone. Other books include A Gentle Sigh, Fragments, Sound of Separation, Akari’s Lakeside, and Wind.
Jesse Kirkwood is a freelance translator working primarily from Japanese & French into English. In 2020 he was awarded the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize for his translation of “Nocturne” by Yūshō Takiguchi.
