Will My Touch Make You Feel Any Less Lonely?

For the emotionally adventurous, the ethically conflicted, and the romantically bruised...

Imagine a garment stitched from silk and regret, lined with ambition, and hemmed in betrayal. Now imagine wearing it across three continents, through the neon-lit alleys of Tokyo, the smoky jazz bars of New York, and the quiet, snow-covered streets of Aomori. That’s what reading this novel feels like.

You’ll meet Makoto Tanaka, a young man with a Waseda education, a taste for indie records, and a talent for seduction-of women, of markets, of fate itself. He’s a stockbroker by day, a lover by night, and a liar in between. He marries the boss’s daughter. He falls for a teenage McDonald’s cashier. He writes letters. He disappears. He returns. He sins. He repents. He sins again.

This is not a love story. It’s a ledger of emotional transactions-some paid in full, others left in arrears.

You’ll encounter Mariko, the porcelain bride with a spine of steel; Mary, the American girl who learns Japanese and heartbreak in equal measure; Nami, the flight attendant who serves tea, turbulence, and temptation; Satomi, the unexpected redemption, found not in a hotel room but in a home.

There are minders. There are mistresses. There are moments of such aching beauty-like a handkerchief folded with care or a whispered apology in a darkened room-that you’ll forget to breathe.

And yes, there is a baby. And a golf club. And a karaoke bar. And a kokeshi doll that watches everything.