From the beloved, bestselling author of Kitchen, comes a deeply haunting, heartwarming exploration of loneliness and painful memories set in Japan.

''Polished, concise, emotionally rewarding.'' Daily Mail
''Reading Banana Yoshimoto is like taking a bracing, cleansing bath.'' LING MA
''Gorgeous . . . an invitation to explore [Yoshimoto''s] unusual, alluring world.'' The Telegraph

I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide ... It was the beginning of summer, and I was nineteen years old.

Yayoi lives with her perfect, loving family - something ''like you'd see in a Spielberg movie''. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood, she is increasingly haunted by the sense that she''s forgotten something important about her past.

Deciding to take a break, she stays with her eccentric but beloved aunt Yukino. Living a life without order, Yukino seems to be protecting herself, but beneath this facade Yayoi starts to recover lost memories, and everything she knows about her past threatens to change forever.

''A sure and lyrical writer . . . Yoshimoto transforms the trite into the essential.'' The New Yorker
'Yoshimoto''s novels are like jewel boxes.' Vanity Fair