Description

Rosalyn is a 24-year-old student in London who leaves for Tokyo. She has a strange illness and a troubled love life. Her family has split apart. Worn down, she takes a scholarship to study Japanese for a year. Life in Japan makes her face herself in new ways. As she meets a new culture, she starts to heal. This helps her leave her past behind.

Raluca Nagy’s novel pairs deep thought with close study of a culture. It suits readers who like tales of life abroad and finding oneself. It follows feelings, thoughts, and meetings, not a standard plot. Rosalyn feels the gap between cultures through her body. The book shows how new ways of life can change one's sense of self.

Nagy is also an anthropologist: she studies people and their cultures. Her early work drew on her time in Morocco. She brings that background to this close, personal tale about Japan. The novel won the Sofia Nădejde debut prize in 2018. It also won the Observator Cultural debut prize in 2019. This is the second edition, in the n’autor fiction series.