This is a gentle, romantic Japanese story, which is a little sad, but kind of uplifting too. It’s interesting to consider that the author, who also wrote The Nakano Thrift Shop and Dragon Palace, went on to write an ambitious dystopian novel, the Booker-shortlisted Under the Eye of the Big Bird.

The narrator is Tsukiko, who is drinking in a bar when she meets her old high school teacher, whom she calls Sensei although it’s a few decades since they were student and teacher. They both live alone, and they enjoy good food and drink, so they start to meet often. Tsukiko gradually realises she wants to be more than friends with Sensei, meanwhile he treasures memories of his wife and is concerned about how his age impacts their relationship.

Not much actually happens in the book, when I try to summarise it, but the author skilfully draws the story out across the seasons and gives the characters life. There were a lot of food descriptions, particularly seafood, which I really don’t like to read about, and sometimes I didn’t get the reference to Japanese culture, but apart from that, it was an absorbing read.

First published in 2001. Translated by Allison Markin Powell and published by Portobello Books, 2014.