Acclaimed Japanese author Nao-Cola Yamazaki joins us for a conversation about Beautiful Distance, their profoundly moving and bestselling novel exploring love, loss and the quiet moments that shape a life.

Tender, intimate and deeply humane, the novel follows a man preparing to visit his terminally ill wife in hospital, reflecting on family, memory and the small acts of care that endure in the face of mortality.

Drawing on both Beautiful Distance and their celebrated novel Don’t Laugh At Other People’s Sex Lives, Nao-Cola will discuss their approach to writing love stories in all their complexity, from first love to loss and grief.

‘Beautiful Distance is a gem of a book – tender, devasting and beautifully written… It will stay with me for a long time.’ Cecile Pin

‘A story full of nostalgia and beauty and hope. First love is perfectly imperfect, and Yamazaki renders it here with all the charm and respect that it deserves.’ Sarah Jessica Parker

Co-presented with the Japan Foundation and Waterstones Deansgate.

Nao-Cola Yamazaki is an award-winning Japanese writer whose work has received the Bungei Prize and the Shimase Award for Love Stories. Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives was adapted into a major motion picture and their books The Side Room of the Katsura Beauty Salon, Hand and Niki’s Abasement were all nominated for the Akutagawa Award.

Location: Waterstones Deansgate