Description: "Still grieving the death of her mother, 29-year-old Akiko is single and lives in self-imposed isolation in Tokyo. Then one evening, she unexpectedly runs into Kento, her first love from school. Kento now leads a reclusive life as a hikikomori, only venturing out at night. At the same time, Akiko discovers evidence that her mother had been lying to her about their family, causing her to doubt everything. She has to admit to herself that she doesn't know who she is. With Kento's help, Akiko embarks on a journey into her own history, which takes her life in surprising directions and leads her to questions she had never dared to ask herself before: How do I want to live? And do I have the courage to love?"-- Provided by publisher.
Review Quotes: "Poignant and vivid...a cinematic work of rich emotional depth." --Publishers Weekly
"Akiko's Quiet Happiness is a restrained yet deeply moving story about the bonds and conflicts that exist within all of us. Culture, family, love, duty, and the quiet self-betrayals that both preserve and destroy us. A truly thought-provoking novel." --Asha Lemmie, New York Times bestselling author of Fifty Words for Rain and The Wildest Sun Praise for The Art of Hearing Heartbeats "A lush tale of romance and family set in mid-twentieth-century Burma...beautiful...bound to enchant readers." --Booklist "Magical...It's stories like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats that show how our very existence is important...What a gift that is." --Huffington Post "No matter what I even attempt to say, I can't possibly capture the absolute magic of this book. Like a spell, it haunts. Like love, it's going to endure." --Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You