Overview

20-something and uncertain about her future, Florentyna Leow is exhilarated when an old acquaintance offers her an opportunity for work and cohabitation in a little house in the hills of Kyoto. Florentyna begins a new job as a tour guide, taking tourists on elaborate and expensive trips around Kyoto's cultural hotspots. Amidst the busy tourist traps and overrun temples, Florentyna develops her own personal map of the city: a favourite smoky jazz kissa; a top-shelf katsuobushi loving cat; an elderly lady named Yamaguchi-san, who shares her sweets and gives Florentyna a Japanese name. Meanwhile, her relationship with her new companion develops an intensity as they live and work together. Their little kitchen, the epicenter of their shared life, overlooks a community garden dominated by a fruitful persimmon tree. Their relationship burns bright, but seasons change, the persimmon tree out back loses its fruit, and things grow strange between the two women.

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9781915628008

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Reviews

'I would let Leow's writing take me anywhere, but in these pages Kyoto transpires to be a particularly meaningful and enchanted destination for her to transport her reader. Friendship, food, language, tour-guiding, and all the myriad kinds of love-whatever she's addressing in the moment, her fragrant, juice-filled prose is coated in a crispy-soft casing of wisdom, self awareness and compassion.' - Polly Barton, author of Fifty Sounds; The book does not gush about Japan, which I appreciate, nor does it tear it down. She never holds back when it comes to her own emotions. But when it comes to the outside world in which she positions herself as an onlooker, she is generous, funny, blunt as she needs to be, mindful of where she stands. The persimmon tree. Just read how she writes about the persimmon tree. You will fall in love. - Yuki Tejima, @booknerdtokyo; 'Leow's collection is a beautifully written exploration of friendship, making a city your home and heartbreak through food writing, travel, cultural and social explorations and elements of memoir. It should be too much for such a slim volume, but it works perfectly.' - Sophie for Books, Burgers and Backpacks; 'Leow has a way with words that carried me into each moment so evocatively that I devoured this short novel in one session: there is a lyricism to every description she delivers...The writing is beautiful, the language evocative and the experience of reading this one to remember. I definitely recommend getting hold of a copy' - Bookaholic Bex; 'It took approximately one sentence for me to know this was going to be one of my favourite books of this year. Leow's storytelling is simply exquisite and I could envision the settings and moment so vividly in my mind that I barely wanted to put the book down to write this. It's a book that I want to both devour immediately but also savour slowly to try and appreciate the work Leow has put into it' - Rhi, @thewordslikedust

Author Information

Florentyna Leow is a writer and translator. Born in Malaysia, she lived in London and Kyoto before moving to Tokyo. Really, though, she lives on the internet. Her work focuses on food and craft, with an emphasis on under-reported stories from rural Japan, like English Toast (neither English nor toast), a shrine dedicated to ice, and Japan's rarest citrus. She cannot go five minutes without thinking about food. How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart is her first book. She can be found @furochan_eats on Instagram and Twitter, or at www.florentynaleow.com

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