An astonishing and moving novella about a misunderstood young girl, from the author of The Woman in the Purple Skirt - part of Pushkin's second Japanese Novella series Other people don't seem to understand Amiko. Whether eating curry rice with her hands at school or peeking through the sliding doors at her mother's calligraphy class, her curious, exuberant nature often results in confusion. When her mother falls into a depression and her brother begins spending all his time with a motorcycle gang, Amiko is left increasingly alone to navigate a world where she doesn't quite fit. Subtle and moving, This is Amiko is a tender portrait of childhood through the eyes of a unique, irrepressible young girl.

'Chilling.' Vogue 'As unusual as it is alluring.' Elle 'Delightfully disturbing.' Refinery 29 'Very powerful.' Sayaka Murata 'Disquieting.' Paula Hawkins 'You will be obsessed.' Leila Slimani The Woman in the Purple Skirt is being watched. Someone is following her, always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes; what she eats; whom she speaks to. But this invisible observer isn't a stalker - it's much more complicated than that.

"A taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession." --Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train "[It] will keep you firmly in its grip." --Oyinkan Braithwaite, bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer "The love child of Eugene Ionesco and Patricia Highsmith." --Kelly Link, bestselling author of Get in Trouble A bestselling, prizewinning novel by one of Japan's most acclaimed young writers, for fans of Convenience Store Woman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, and the movies Parasite and Rear Window I think what I'm trying to say is that I've been wanting to become friends with the Woman in the Purple Skirt for a very long time... Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched--by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to. From a distance, the Woman in the Purple Skirt looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face, and her hair is dry and stiff. She is single, she lives in a small apartment, and she is short on money--just like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who lures her to a job as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she too is a housekeeper. Soon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss and all eyes are on her. But no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt. Studiously deadpan and chillingly voyeuristic, and with the off-kilter appeal of the novels of Ottessa Moshfegh, The Woman in the Purple Skirt explores envy, loneliness, power dynamics, and the vulnerability of unmarried women in a taut, suspenseful narrative about the sometimes desperate desire to be seen.