Nick Bradley

Surprisingly moving ... This is a novel that occupies multiple worlds in multiple ways ... a postmodern riddle while also making for an emotionally engaging story ... there's something here for everyone.

Bradley builds a poignant, quiet and affecting novel full of love as well as loss.

Transportive, mesmerising and beautiful, there is such a poignancy and tenderness to the story . . . written with lyrical prose that is emotive and warm. Every book worm would love this.

Bradley has created an authentic sense of place, capturing the parochial intimacies and day-to-day rhythms of small-town life in Japan

My favourite novel, a delight for lovers of Japan&hellip; Ingenious

A soulful story about Japanese culture, tradition and resilience

This is a gentle, tender and thoughtful book, exploring literature, love, human connection, Japanese culture and the disillusion of youth. It features beautiful imagery and is crafted in such a way that you want to savour every chapter.

Four Seasons in Japan doubles as a love letter to Japanese culture, its landscape, and literature, exploring the comfort found in books and the (mis)understanding between generations.

This novel is like the waves of the Seto Inland Sea. Waves that calmly roll in and out, permeating the reader's heart and mind profoundly, and before you know it there's a rich high tide.

Kyoko Nakajima, author of Things Remembered and Things Forgotten

This is a finely drawn evocation of Japan, of youth, age, dreams, disillusionment, struggles and strength. Nick Bradley has created a set of many-layered characters whose actions and attitudes pull us deeply into their story. A poignant and beautiful book.

Hazel Prior, author of Away with the Penguins

This book is a finely-wrought wonder. Four Seasons in Japan carries its wisdom lightly, but tells a profound tale about the redemptive power of narrative and the consolations of art.

A beautiful, meditative, and oh so tender tale about family, art, and finding your place in the world. Despite its sometimes heavy topics, it's written with a light enough touch to make for a consoling and hopeful read, filled with warmth and compassion. I breezed through it.

What a thrill to be transported to Japan once again by the magic of Nick Bradley's storytelling. Warm, wise, and exquisitely written, these twin narratives explore the redemptive power of art and the courage needed to devote a life to it. This is the kind of book that lingers in the heart.

Violet Kupersmith, author of Build Your House Around My Body

A beautifully constructed story within a story that builds to an emotional and satisfying conclusion; I loved being immersed in the characters' experiences of heartbreak, warmth, finding purpose and, of course, cats, in the shifting seasons of urban and rural Japan. Ayako is a character I will carry with me for a long time.

Eleanor Wasserberg, author of The Light at the End of the Day

I savoured every line of this beautifully observed portrait of Japan. Bradley creates a world and characters that are completely engrossing.

An affecting tale of lost souls making connections, told with wit, compassion and gentle inventiveness.

A beguiling book within a book that delicately traces the interconnectedness of lives across generations, within families, between strangers, and between books and their readers. I loved it.

Gentle, restrained and utterly captivating. I love this book.

Gorgeous. Four Seasons in Japan is the best kind of book: layered, interlinked and clever, but also delicately drawn, immersive and big-hearted. I strung out the last chapters, reluctant to let the beguiling characters go.

Rebecca Stott, author of In The Days of Rain

Nick Bradley's ingenious choreography of a constantly moving city, is touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking

The key pleasure of reading this book is its sprightly vigour - cool but not hipsterish, ambitious but not pretentious - that evokes a similar liveliness in the reader. It makes you feel young again

John Self, The Times, on THE CAT AND THE CITY

I wolfed down these interlocking stories of cats, Tokyo, loneliness and redemption. Congratulations to Nick Bradley on this vibrant and accomplished debut

An ideal tonic for anyone craving far-flung adventure

A love letter to [Japan's] culture, landscape and literature

A completely heartwarming novel about the power of books and connection between generations, perfect for fans of The Lost Bookshop. 
 
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE CAT AND THE CITY, A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 
 
'Vibrant and accomplished' David Mitchell, on The Cat and the City 
‘Every book worm would love this’ Glamour 
‘A love letter to Japanese culture’ Country & Town House 
 
Flo is sick of Tokyo. 
 
Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she's in a relationship that's run its course. 
 
That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. 
 
From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life. 
 
As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. 
 
And, as the two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge, and it soon becomes clear that Flo’s journey is just beginning… 
 
 
Readers have fallen in love with Four Seasons in Japan: 
 
‘My favourite novel, a delight for lovers of Japan… Ingenious’ David Abulafia, author of The Boundless Sea 
 
‘A gentle, tender and thoughtful book …crafted in such a way that you want to savour every chapter’ Culturefly 
 
‘What a thrill to be transported to Japan… Warm, wise, and exquisitely written’ Violet Kupersmith, author of Build Your House Around My Body 
 
‘A book about a book!! So clever… so believable’ Reader review, five stars 
 
‘I savoured every line… a world and characters that are completely engrossing’ Bea Setton, author of Berlin 
 
‘Quirky, complex and compelling… two stories for the price of one’ Reader review, five stars 
 
‘What an incredibly beautiful and moving book full of warmth and wisdom!!!’ Reader review, five stars

Nick Bradley

Praise for Four Seasons in Japan

Surprisingly moving ... This is a novel that occupies multiple worlds in multiple ways ... a postmodern riddle while also making for an emotionally engaging story ... there's something here for everyone.

Bradley builds a poignant, quiet and affecting novel full of love as well as loss.

Transportive, mesmerising and beautiful, there is such a poignancy and tenderness to the story . . . written with lyrical prose that is emotive and warm. Every book worm would love this.

Surprisingly moving ... This is a novel that occupies multiple worlds in multiple ways ... a postmodern riddle while also making for an emotionally engaging story ... there's something here for everyone.

Bradley builds a poignant, quiet and affecting novel full of love as well as loss.

Transportive, mesmerising and beautiful, there is such a poignancy and tenderness to the story . . . written with lyrical prose that is emotive and warm. Every book worm would love this.

Surprisingly moving ... This is a novel that occupies multiple worlds in multiple ways ... a postmodern riddle while also making for an emotionally engaging story ... there's something here for everyone.

Bradley builds a poignant, quiet and affecting novel full of love as well as loss.

Transportive, mesmerising and beautiful, there is such a poignancy and tenderness to the story . . . written with lyrical prose that is emotive and warm. Every book worm would love this.

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