Gifted claims to be a story about a mother–daughter relationship at an intense crossroads in their lives. The mother is dying; the daughter, who works in Tokyo’s entertainment district, quits her job to spend time with her. That framing sets the bar very high. One would reasonably expect tense conversations, long-buried arguments, revelations about shared past. At the very least, the novel could offer insight into Tokyo’s underbelly or into how elderly care is organised in J

Service User A lives in a mouldy, badly ventilated basement hotel ( read dormitory) room. She is 65 and has not seen anything an average person would call a “decent life” since the day she was born. Still, the unnamed housing officer, whose job it is to assess whether Service User A qualifies for urgent permanent accommodation, calmly concludes the following: “Nothing about the case caught my eye. It contained the usual mix of trauma, language barriers and communication issue

For women the first half is preloaded with obligations: be a good daughter, a tolerable wife, and naturally - a mother. Biology and society clap politely while they ticks the boxes. And then, unexpectedly, the list runs out. Young enough to hope, solvent enough to try Natalia Ginzburg tells a story of such a woman, firmly planted in the “second half” of her life. She has money to spend, time to waste, and an explosive amount of energy to finally pursue her long-delayed dream:

Wow, what a lucky charm - you’re in Russia. How did this happen in 2026? Only the stars know. You are either one of the lucky South Americans who don’t need a visa to travel to Russia, an Asian who went through a number of loopholes to get to Saint Petersburg, or a Western European who finally conquered Russia on your horse, wearing one of those fancy tricorn hats… However you got there, as a true book lover you are searching for bookstores. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered

Territory of Light is a novel about single motherhood in 1970s Japan. Its narrator, recently abandoned by her husband, recounts the first year in a new apartment she shares with her young daughter. The book is praised for its unflinching portrayal of motherhood, loneliness, and the quiet violence of a rigid society that expects women to endure rather than resist. But hovering in the shadows of this story is a character who deserves far more attention than he usually gets: Fu