<p><b>Winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize</b></p><p><b>Caught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.</b><br></p><p><span>The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito</span><span> explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society.</span></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Ito has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her.