Rose is depressed and isolated when she receives word that her estranged father has died, and she has been invited to the reading of his will in Japan. She travels to Kyoto, avoiding socialization and her own nostalgia, where she meets Paul, her father's assistant. In the days before the will reading, Paul takes Rose on a tour of the city. She begins to find comfort in the sentimentality of the strange land. This is a beautifully told story of uncovering love within loss. Muriel Barbery writes in unmatched poetic prose, lauding Japanese culture in the descriptions of its botany, its food, and interspersed haiku and folklore. You'll never read anything else quite like this. Books included: The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, A Single Rose, Yours Cheerfully, The Last Mona Lisa, The Bookshop of Second Chances.