Best Trail Running for Women (New York Review Books Classics)

In 1970s Japan, a young, single mother named Takiko Odaka sets out on foot at dawn, in the midst of a hot midsummer, to the hospital where she will give birth to a baby boy. Her pregnancy, the result of a brief affair with a married man, brings her sorrow and shame from her abusive parents. However, for Takiko, it is a cause for daydreaming. She envisions her baby as her own, a challenge that she hopes will set her free.

The first year of Takiko's motherhood is filled with the intense physical pleasures and pains that come with caring for a newborn. Initially, she seeks solace in the company of other women – in the hospital and in her son's nursery. As her baby grows, her life becomes less confined, and she begins to explore Tokyo. Eventually, she ventures beyond the city into the countryside, headed toward a mountain that sparks her imagination and desire for a wilder sense of freedom.

This tender and poetic novel is an early success for a modern Japanese master.

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