About “Briefcase”
Strange Weather in Tokyo (also known as The Briefcase) is a 2001 novel by Hiromi Kawakami, published by Heibonsha, which won the 37th Tanizaki Prize the same year. Allison Markin Powell's 2012 English translation, published by Counterpoint under the title The Briefcase, was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize and Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; Counterpoint republished the same translation in 2017 under the new title Strange Weather in Tokyo. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)
Praise for “Briefcase”
“I'm hooked on The Briefcase, a sentimental novel about the friendship, formed over late nights at a sake bar, between a Tokyo woman in her late thirties and her old high school teacher... I can only imagine what wizardry must have gone into Allison Markin Powell's translation.”
“A dream–like spell of a novel, full of humour, sadness, warmth and tremendous subtlety. I read this in one sitting and I think it will haunt me for a long time.”
“In quiet, nature–infused prose that stresses both characters' solitude, Kawakami subtly captures the cyclic patterns of loneliness while weighing the definition of love.”
Book details
- Published
- 2012
- ISBN
- 9781619020436
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is Briefcase?
Briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami has 208 pages.
Some summaries adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Book descriptions, author biographies, award records and review quotes on this page are courtesy of Penguin Random House.