Trisha Ready’s debut novel tells the story of a young American teaching English in 1980s Japan who falls in love with a woman named Nobuko. It’s simple to summarize, but that hardly prepares the reader for Nobuko’s evocative approach in form: 108 ultra-short chapters, each one limited to 150 words.

The book is a modular mosaic that blends fiction, memoir, and prose poetry. Each vignette is its own encapsulated memory that together build a narrative philosophy. And by stripping each scene down to atomic sentences and clear-eyed, judgment-free observations, Ready posits that how you tell a story is an ethical choice.

She wastes no words. “When my plane landed in Tokyo, I realized I had no clue how to get to Utsunomiya. I hadn’t charted a route. Or even located the city on a map.” In three

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