How do you take care of six pet birds when their owner lives a couple of hours away and you don’t drive? Why, of course, bundle them into small cake boxes and then into paper bags, and carry them on the train.
That’s what the young woman narrating the story decides to do when her bird-loving mother is going to be in the hospital for a while. To help her in the task, she enlists her husband Ken’ichi. Well, ex-husband. They divorced about a month ago. But there’s no one else she can ask.
Their shared journey becomes a darkly humorous exploration of family, endings, and what makes marriage so near-impossible, at least for the strong-willed and observant narrator, to pull off.
Mitsuyo Kakuta is the author of Woman on the Other Shore and The Eighth Day and the recipient of 14 literary prizes in Japan. She lives in Tokyo.
Cover design by Andrew Lee.
That’s what the young woman narrating the story decides to do when her bird-loving mother is going to be in the hospital for a while. To help her in the task, she enlists her husband Ken’ichi. Well, ex-husband. They divorced about a month ago. But there’s no one else she can ask.
Their shared journey becomes a darkly humorous exploration of family, endings, and what makes marriage so near-impossible, at least for the strong-willed and observant narrator, to pull off.
Mitsuyo Kakuta is the author of Woman on the Other Shore and The Eighth Day and the recipient of 14 literary prizes in Japan. She lives in Tokyo.
Cover design by Andrew Lee.
