Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Far From Everywhere by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell, which will be published on February 16, 2027 by Algonquin Books/Granta Books. You can pre-order your copy here.
From the bestselling, International Booker-shortlisted author of Strange Weather in Tokyo, this polyphonic story of love and friendship on the outskirts of Tokyo takes readers into a neighborhood like any other, yet full of unforgettable characters—by turns funny, wise, and heartrending.
Take the train from central Tokyo and head east. In twenty minutes, hop off and here you are: far from anywhere, but right in the heart of everything. Here, you’ll meet a widowed fishmonger who invites his dead wife’s former lover to move in, a fortune teller who helps a friend down on his luck, a young woman who learns her mother-in-law’s secret over a late night snack of tea and rice crackers, and, at the local restaurant, the cook and the server whose on/off relationship might be back on.
From one of Japan’s most celebrated writers, this charming, character-rich meander through a small, seemingly average community becomes a quiet, profound meditation on connection and attachment, loneliness and loss, life and all its ephemera.
Here’s the cover, designed by Luke Bird:
Hiromi Kawakami: The men and women who inhabit this Tokyo neighborhood might appear ordinary but are each remarkable in their own way, and the novel zooms in and out as they quietly go about their lives, none of which have played out as expected, exposing the subtle intersections of their shared existence.
The inspiration for Far From Everywhere began when I was writing another novel, Manazuru. I was making frequent trips to the town of Manazuru, and one time I went into a run-down dried fish shop, where there was a photograph of Picasso and Cocteau. The photo of these two artists in tuxedos was such an unexpected sight on the dilapidated wall of this dried fish shop, and thinking about this incongruity is what inspired me to write the first chapter. From there, another chapter appeared on the page, and another, like links on a chain.
From Algonquin editor Madeline Jones: When the Granta team showed us their cover design by Luke Bird, we all knew at Algonquin that we wanted to use it for our edition in the US, too. The architecture gives such an immediate sense of place. You want to know the stories of the people running errands, going about their daily lives, crossing paths with mutual friends or acquaintances without realizing it, like the characters in the book, whose small interactions reveal Kawakami’s profound wisdom about what makes life meaningful.
