Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.
Twenty-two-year-old Sumire is in love for the first time - with a woman 17 years her senior. But whereas Miu is a glamorous and successful older woman with a taste for classical music and fine wine, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel.
Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her?
K, a primary school teacher, is used to answering questions, but what he most wants to say to Sumire is "I love you". And so, in this extraordinary tale from Japan's most celebrated novelist, each character is trapped in their own world, lost satellites adrift in the infinite darkness of space; lonely souls who meet, pass each other, and part, perhaps never to meet again.
Frustrated in his love for Sumire, K consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. But when a desperate Miu calls him out of the blue from a small Greek island and asks for his help, he soon discovers that something very strange has happened to Sumire.
