SONOKO MACHIDA won the influential Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2021 with her much-loved novel 52-Hertz Whales, which went on to sell over 400,000 copies. This translation into English by Sam Bett is long awaited. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1980, Sonoko Machida left school to become a hairdresser. While in her twenties, she realized she had a strong wish to write stories. She brought up her children as a single parent and continues to write bestselling fiction in Japan. Her most recent book to be translated into English is TheConvenience Store by the Sea.