José Daniel Alvior Seven Days in Tokyo

'Tantalising' Leo Vardiashvili, author of Hard by a Great Forest 'Profound' Iqbal Hussain, author of Northern Boy Two strangers meet in Manhattan and spend a perfect night together. In Tokyo, they have seven days to see if that one night might mean something more. Landon’s living alone in Tokyo as a British ‘expat’, Louie’s visiting while he anxiously waits for approval on his US visa. Against the backdrop of a misty Tokyo Spring, their precious time together is spent wandering into side streets and coffee shops, sharing unmade beds and plates of food. But as the days tick by, Louie’s expectations start to overtake reality and he falls too deeply for a life that’s not yet his. Breathtakingly tender, Seven Days in Tokyo is an astonishing debut about the intricacies of desire and a search for belonging. It is a lyrical, immersive portrait of how some things, however beautiful and profound, are destined to be as short-lived as the cherry blossoms. ‘A study of misplaced desire and a poetic love letter to the city itself’ Jemma Kennedy, playwright 'Alvior's protagonist and love interest are as complexly built as a Sally Rooney couple' Zahra Barri, author of Daughters of the Nile