In this groundbreaking novel, Fumiko Hayashi tells a powerful story of tormented love and one woman's struggle to navigate the cruel realities of postwar Japan. Spare, affecting prose recounts Japanese colonialism and the harshness of Japan's postwar experience from the rare perspective of a woman, and a rich cast of characters, drawn from the back alleys of urban Japan and the bottom? rungs of society, offers an unforgettable portrait of Japanese society after the war.The novel's characters, particularly its resilient heroine Yukiko Koda, find themselves trapped in their own drifting, unable to break free from the morass of indecisiveness. Yukiko moves from the lush and beautiful surroundings of Japanese-occupied French Indochina to the desolation and chaos of postwar Japan, and must now find her way through a radically changed landscape and society. We also follow her tortured relationship with Tomioka, a minor official working for the Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Though Tomioka returns to his wife after the war, he refuses to end his affair with Yukiko. As the two continue to cross paths, their passion and desperation grow, reflecting the intense upheaval of the times in which they live.