ソリティアおじさんがいた頃

The narrator works for a miso company in Kyoto. One freezing winter morning she comes in to find a name she has not heard in a long while going round the office in whispers: Mr Kuronoda is dead, killed in a fire. He was the man she used to call, privately, Solitaire Man. More or less by chance she ends up at his wake, and afterwards she resolves to settle two things, a romance that has dragged on going nowhere and a job with no future. Told in light Kyoto speech, the story watches how small shifts in an unchanging routine can redirect a life, and likens her choice to a move in a game of patience that may win it or leave her stuck.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

133 pages in the original

Set in

Japan

First published

2026 by Bungeishunju

Author's age

47 when first published

ISBN

9784163921419 (original)