The Third Love -- Hiromi Kawakami, Hardcover

A time-bending story of love, desire, and destiny that sways between Japan's past and its present--from a courtesan of Yoshiwara in Edo to a serving lady of the Heian period to a wife and mother in the twenty-first century--by one of our most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists

Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship soured by infidelity. One day, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams.

Now, each night, she sinks into another life: first as a high-ranking courtesan in the seventeenth century, and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. As she experiences desire and heartbreak in the past, so Riko comes to reconsider her life as a twenty-first-century woman--as a wife, as a mother, and as a lover--and to ask herself whether, after loving her husband and loving Mr Takaoka, she is ready for her third great love.

Author: Hiromi Kawakami
Publisher: Soft Skull
Published: 10/21/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05 lbs
Size: 8.35" H x 5.59" L x 1.1" W
ISBN: 9781593768058

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