Beautiful and polished as a Japanese proverb, these fourteen stories explore Japan and the cultural differences between East and West as witnessed by a young traveller working and studying there. 'It is, in one bite, a brilliant portrait of separate cultures, of family politics and mess, of the sniping, busting and tentative mending of a marriage, of self-deceit and self-understanding. The writing is molten, quixotic and precise.' Scotland on Sunday