A Good Place to Leave a Lover
An American woman in Tokyo is planning to leave her lover when a tragedy strikes the nation. In a lounge in the Ginza district, an expat pianist wonders if a room in the back helps desperate men start new lives. A Japanese woman in San Francisco is searching for a consulate staff member, who has vanished with a suitcase full of passports.
Set in Tokyo and San Francisco, these stories are colorful postcards reporting from cultural intersections. A medley of voices and fresh takes on the expat experience, these intimately detailed portraits show American and Japanese characters enchanted with intercultural love while also facing the history they share. A long-time resident of Tokyo, Gattig writes with a light, witty touch and supple, poetic prose, showing how we need others to understand ourselves in the world.
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A former Tokyo resident now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nicolas Gattig is ideally positioned to portray both places with insight, empathy, and humor. Gattig has published short stories, essays, and poetry in numerous journals and anthologies, including Asia Literary Review, the Express Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Foreign Literary Journal. He is a contributing writer at the Japan Times, where he writes travel essays and book reviews.