Initially seeming, and usually billed as, light and quirky, this is actually a rather somber, if at points still playful, description of grief and the incremental process of moving on. The action unfolds over two unrelated stories in three parts -- it's in the second part of the title novella that this really seems to come into its own as the landscape and event become less familiar and more haunting, albeit in an entirely warm and personal way that infuses the whole work. Yoshimoto shares a certain tendency towards oracular or portentous encounters with a certain of her countrymen, which rather makes me wonder where the peculiarity arose from.