All the Lovers in the Night

By Kamakawi Mieko

Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd

(2011, translated 2022)

Europa Editions


Kawakami is a master of the narrative voice, and the internal voice shines in this unflinching study of adult loneliness.  All the Lovers in the Night’s Irie Fuyuko is a 34-year-old copywriter who fully invests herself in nothing at all but her work, which she describes as a sterile form of reading. She lives by a strange truism: the copy-editor fails the moment she begins to read; correction, intratextual alignment and conformity, research, and verification are the goals, and anything else is a distraction. With no interests, friends, or goals, when she encounters her reflection in a public place, she sees the woman looking back at her as the embodiment of a “miserable” person. It is not until a former manager calls her out one night thatFuyuko even imagines varying her highly routinised existence. Their lopsided relationship reveals the oversharing, ego-centric, and domineering qualities of her former boss and showcases Fuyuko’s extreme passivity: in conversation, she struggles to find words, and when she does, she lacks the confidence to speak. Taking a page from her mentor, she begins using alcohol to make her more comfortable in social situations, a strategy that has serious consequences. Later, when she confesses that she is bullied and shunned by her coworkers, her new friend facilitates a healthy career change for her protégée: she resigns from her office job and becomes a full-time freelancer. One immediate benefit of this change is that Fuyoko finds herself with more time on her hands. Chance encounters with fliers from an adult learning center that may be a cover for a cult inspire her to look into taking a night class, where she imagines she can meet people like herself. And there she encounters a man twenty years older than her, the shy, judgment-free Mr. Mitsutsuka, a high school physics teacher. When Fuyuko reveals her fascination with light to him, he confesses that a yearning to know the true nature of light inspired him to study physics. The two begin to meet regularly to share simple, emotionally awkward conversations, and in time, Fuyoko develops feelings for the older man. As she begins to imagine a relationship with Mr. Mitsutsuka, Fuyoka is confronted by long-suppressed memories of a sexual assault she suffered in her youth. Rather than turn away, she performs a kind of autopsy on the crime and appears to come away with a newfound understanding of the perpetrator’s weaknesses. All the Lovers in the Night is not so much about plot as it is a critique of the isolation of the modern world. It is a brilliant character study of a woman who seems fated to hit rock bottom and join the ranks of Japan’s hikikomori, the adults who have completely withdrawn from society.  The story unfolds slowly. Fuyoko’s language is remarkably simple and unsophisticated; once attuned to it, the reader finds that her speech is in fact nuanced and rich in meaning. Kamakawi renders Fuyoko’s mentor’s speech in loud, multisyllabic, and profanity-laden take-downs, mostly directed at other women but also at Fuyoko, who reveals herself to be more than just a punching bag. And Mitsutsuka strangely takes all the prizes for most monosyllabic words in a conversation and sentences that might actually be zen koans. Those who choose to stay by Fuyoko’s side on her journey will be rewarded with many surprises, many crows, and all manner of beautiful lights.

“Had I ever chosen anything? Had I made some kind of choice that led me here? Thinking it over, I stared at the cell phone in my hands. The job that I was doing, the place where I was living, the fact that I was all alone and had no one to talk to. Could these have been the result of some decision that I’d made?

I heard a crow crying somewhere in the distance and turned to the window. It occurred to me that maybe I was where I was today because I hadn’t chosen anything.

I applied to whatever colleges my teacher suggested and fell into a job after graduation, which I’d left only because I had to escape. I was only able to go freelance because of all the leg-work that Hijiri did for me. Had I ever chosen anything on my own, made something happen? Not once. And that’s why I was here now, all alone.”