(tent) Let’s Go to the Forest

Hiromi Kawakami’s long-awaited new novel is a sweeping exploration of love and marriage—her first full-length work on the subject in years. Spanning over 500 pages, this remarkable literary achievement is an irresistible page-turner. The story centers on Tomotsu and Lutz, two women born on the same day in 1966, the year of the fire horse. Though they live in parallel worlds, each woman feels like the other might be a version of herself that could have existed. In fact, their lovers and husbands might also be reflections of another “you”—the reader. As with Tomotsu and Lutz, many women of a generation that has “lost sight of the path they were supposed to follow someday” now stand at countless crossroads. To choose. To decide. To forge ahead. To regret. And to choose again. Whether it’s higher education, career, marriage, or motherhood—every choice is a turning point, and walking just beside each chosen path is another version of who you might have become. From girlhood to the threshold of fifty, the novel traces what love and marriage bring to the lives of its two heroines. What do we gain—and what do we leave behind? The paths branch and connect, until we’re lost, unsure of how to return… And yet, that’s what makes the forest of life so deep—and so full of joy. This beautiful edition features cover and interior illustrations by Akira Minagawa, designer of the fashion brand minä perhonen. The design itself, brimming with quiet playfulness, is also not to be missed.