Author: Kimura, Kumi

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 10 April 2025 by Pushkin Press in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 144 pages
129 x 198 x 13 | 134g

An unsettling, poignant story about two troubled strangers finding refuge in each other during the pandemic

As coronavirus spreads, paranoia overtakes a quiet northern Japanese town. People keep strict social distance, they disinfect their groceries and doorknobs, they fear-especially anyone from a teeming city. In these tense, antiseptic circumstances, two odd loners meet.

One bears the burden of possibly causing a protestor's death, the other worries her behaviour led to a student's suicide. In their remote lives, there is no relief. But then an unlikely connection begins to grow between them.

As the world collapses around them, can they become one another's refuge?