TRANSLATED BY BRIAN BERGSTROM 'An offbeat, bold and subversive portrait of contemporary womanhood, full of brilliantly unconventional characters' Lisa Owens, author of Not Working Izumi needs to get a job. Haruka needs to stop talking about how she once had cancer. Kato needs to get through a shift at the convenience store without being harassed. Mito needs to break up with her boyfriend - or marry him. Sumie just needs somewhere to live. 'Here are people caught between loss and regeneration. The struggles of their forlorn hearts are depicted with a light, graceful touch. There will come a point in all of our lives when we will need Fumio Yamamoto's writing' Saou Ichikawa, author of the International Booker Prize-longlisted Hunchback 'Witty, wise and thought-provoking, these darkly comic stories portray five unique women as they deal with the societal pressures that come with being a woman in their world' Cecelia Ahern, bestselling author of P.

S. I Love You 'What an engaging, witty and unique book. So brilliantly written that I kept trying to memorise sentences in order to repeat them to people later' Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This.