Moshi Moshi

Though the award-winning Yoshimoto (Kitchen) grounds her new work in a lurid event—Yocchan has just lost her beloved musician father in a murder-suicide pact with a woman neither she nor her mother knows—the narrative itself is measured, tenderly thoughtful, and wholly free of the sort of over-the-top bathos a less practiced or more desperate writer might proffer. Yocchan tries to recover her equilibrium by moving to a funky Tokyo neighborhood called Shimokitkitazawa and ambitiously begins working at the French bistro Les Liens. She's initially upset when her mother says she wants to move in with her temporarily but then changes her perspective: "I'm on vacation, and Mom's just visiting. No big deal." Speaking with colleagues about her father, Yocchan uncovers details about his death and forges ahead, even as her mother liberates herself from her conservative matron role. Though the two imagine that Yocchan's father is trying to contact them, their healing comes all on their own.