A Perfect Day to Be Alone

A young woman spends a year adrift in Aoyama’s elegant English-language debut. Surly 20-year-old Chizu Mita moves in with her distant relative, Ginko Ogino, in Tokyo after Chizu’s mother leaves for a teaching job in China. Chizu tries to needle the 71-year-old woman for her quirks, such as decorating a room with photos of her deceased cats, but Ginko is unflappable. Chizu gets a job as a kiosk attendant at the nearby rail station and starts dating coworker Fujita, though they don’t have much to talk about (their meals are “quiet and peaceful, like the unruffled surface of a lake”). As the year passes, Chizu’s mood never thaws, despite Ginko’s efforts, such as inviting the young woman on outings with her new boyfriend, a ballroom dancer. Aoyama adeptly conveys Chizu’s loneliness and how her unvoiced emotions drive her attempts to pull others into her misery. The result is a notable tale of arrested development. Agent: Li Kangqin, New River Literary. (Feb.)