We all know that moment, don’t we? When adolescent dreams about the life we wanted suddenly feel meaningless? When everyone around us seems to have their relationships and careers in order, while we’re still trying to understand ourselves?
Nanae Aoyama captures this very human experience in her novella “A Perfect Day to Be Alone,” which won the Akutagawa Prize in 2007 when the author was just 24 years old. Although widely translated throughout Europe and Asia, it is Aoyama’s first work to be translated into English. The slim work is a fitting introduction to the writer, whose taut, understated prose depicts the intersection between adolescence and adulthood with humorous authenticity and tender pain.
A Perfect Day to Be Alone, by Nanae Aoyama. Translated by Jesse Kirkwood. 160 pages, QUERCUS PUBLISHING, Fiction.
