The Chibineko Kitchen

If you could speak to someone you've lost, one last time, what would you tell them? Steam rises from the bowls of simmered fat greenling, rice and miso soup on the table in front of Kotoko. She has taken the train from Tokyo to reach the Chibineko Kitchen, a restaurant perched by the sea in Chiba Prefecture. Still reeling from the sudden death of her brother, she has heard that the food served there can reunite you with a lost loved one for one last time. Hardly daring to believe it can be true, she sits down to the kagezen, the remembrance meal, and takes a bite. Then the clock stops ticking, the gulls fall silent and the air grows hazy . . . In A Meal to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen, Kotoko crosses paths with a handful of other protagonists - a primary school boy, an elderly farmer, and the restaurant's young chef - each of them grieving and looking for answers. This is a novel about coming to terms with loss, and finding what matters most in life.

Yuta Takahashi