A Perfect Day to Be Alone

Chizu, twenty, finished high school and drifts from one casual job to the next. When her mother, a teacher, is posted abroad for training, Chizu moves in with Ginko, a distant relative of seventy-one who lives on her own. The old house stands right beside a suburban station platform yet was somehow passed over when the area around the station was rebuilt; each morning the two women watch from the veranda as commuters pack onto trains for Shinjuku. Chizu takes a job at the station kiosk, finds a boyfriend while already picturing how it will end, and looks on as Ginko has a romance of her own. Wary of owing anyone, she keeps her mother at arm's length and refuses the idea of university because of what it would cost.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

169 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

Japan

First published

2006 by Kawade Shobo Shinsha

Author's age

23 when first published

ISBN

9784309018089 (original)

9781529427684 (MacLehose Press, United Kingdom)

9781635425390 (Other Press, United States)