About the Author

Born in 1970 in Aichi Prefecture and currently living in Yokohama, Michiko Aoyama worked for two years as a reporter for a Japanese newspaper in Sydney after graduating from university. After her return to Tokyo, she started to work as a magazine editor at a publishing house before turning to full-time writing. Her work has won the first Miyazaki Book Award, the thirteenth Tenryu Literary Prize, and has been a runner-up for the 2021 Japan Booksellers' Award. Her other works include Kamakura Uzumaki lnformation Centre, Old God at the Bus Stop, Matcha Cafe on Monday, and Red, Blue, and Esquisse.

Susan Momoko Hingley has a Japanese mother and British father. Born in Tokyo and raised in Munich, she is trilingual and speaks native-level English, Japanese, and German. After graduating from a law degree at the University of Warwick, she trained at East 15 Acting School in London and École Philipe Gaulier in Paris. She has worked with companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, New National Theatre Tokyo, the BBC, and HBO.