A Perfect Day To Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama

translated elegantly from the original Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood.

Looking back from my grand old age of mumble mumble, I can safely say that the transitory years to adulthood, when you’re no longer a student but expected to be able to mostly fend for yourself and make good decisions are genuinely some of the roughest emotionally. This goes doubly so when you’re not super good at describing your motivations and desires, like Chizu, the narrator of this slender novel. To some, that would make her an unlikely protagonist for a story about a year in the life of a young woman more or less embracing adulthood. To me, her inability to fully relate her interiority to the outside world makes her the perfect everywoman for the theme.

Chizu has graduated from secondary school but doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life besides possessing a vague idea of living in Tokyo. Her mother, who is about to accept a post overseas, arranges for Chizu to live with Ginko, an elderly woman and distant relative who owns a house near a train station. Ginko has long been in the habit of letting a young woman stay with her in exchange for the company (and, presumably, the rent that Chizu’s mother insists on sending.)

The seasons pass as Chizu grows accustomed to living with a new roommate, finding work, navigating romantic relationships and dealing with her mother. Things are confusing and hard and Chizu isn’t yet mature, but as the year goes on, she begins to embrace what it means to be an independent young woman in 21st century Japan.

The literary realism of the book can seem a little dull to readers who expect stories to have big emotions and events, and especially for readers unfamiliar with the societal segment whom Nanae Aoyama is describing in the person of Chizu, as well as the accompanying social issue she’s responding to with her ultimately sympathetic portrayal (Google “Japan freeters” to learn more.) Chizu is not the kind of person who’s going to make world headlines, but that doesn’t make her story any less important to herself, or to the people who care about her and people like her and all they represent. Little wonder that this quiet but incisive novel won Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize.

A Perfect Day To Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama was published February 11 2025 by Other Press and is available from all good booksellers, including