I received this book from Book Break UK in exchange for an honest review.

30-something year old Fuyuko Irie is used to being alone, never having a close friend in school or in young adulthood. She thinks she's content with her freelance, work from home life, never speaking to many people and occupying herself with her job plus a walk every year on her birthday to see all the Christmas lights out at night time. But one day Fuyuko decides she wants to do more and meets a man called Mitsutsuka, who along with her colleague Hijiri may coax her out of her shell.

This book is very much 'sad girl' vibes - Fuyuko lives an extremely isolated life and while at first, it seems this is what she wants and craves, as we learn more about her there is definitely a sense of loneliness and the feeling of something missing which is when she turns to drinking.

I found the chapters where Fuyuko was drinking quite hard to read, and seeing her treat herself in such a way and putting herself in embarrassing situations. It also felt like there was no real 'reason' behind her drinking other than something to do with her time, and the serious, methodical way she approached it felt quite odd and disconcerting at first. Obviously, we learn about a trauma in Fuyuko's past and that explains why she has retreated from society, and this was also a very hard chapter to read.

I always find Mieko Kawakami's books a beautiful, engrossing read as she writes about stories that in the heart are so simple but she brings out the extraordinary moments in them, and all those special moments within people and between people. I loved the examination on friendship, in all its forms and glory, as well as that of potential romantic relationships and the tenderness, fear and exhilaration - as well as bravery - that is involved in entering one.

I recently read a book called Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin, which is a Korean book about another woman who has been lonely and isolated her whole life. All the Lovers in the Night gave me the save vibes and melancholy feeling as Violets (though All the Lovers feels a bit more hopeful) so if you like this, I'd recommend the other!