In N. P., a celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English, entitled N. P. But the book may never be published in his native Japan: each translator who takes up the ninety-eighth story chooses death too—including Kazami’s boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji’s death, Kazami discovers the truth behind the ninety-eighth story—and comes to believe that “everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.”

Banana Yoshimoto’s language sweeps the reader immediately into the streets of Tokyo, with her uncanny ability to merge the echoes of Japanese traditional literature with a contemporary plot.