FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF KITCHEN 'The voice of young Japan.' INDEPENDENT 'The literary equivalent of a lo-fi playlist.' JAPAN TIMES '[Yoshimoto] is the supreme poet of solitude.' SPECTATOR An elegiac story of two young cousins coming of age at the Japanese seaside. Maria has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled and occasionally cruel. Now Maria is moving to Tokyo to go to university. When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love, and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family.