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Carrying on the legacy of "The Tatami Galaxy", "The Night is Short, Walk on Girl" is yet another of Tomohiko Morimi’s masterfully crafted novels telling an absurd and magical story of a university student living a quite miserable life of his own in Kyoto. This time however, the story is told from two perspectives – one of our protagonist, and the other one of a black-haired maiden, the target of protagonist’s secret affections. There are many fantastical and bizarre things that happen to our couple throughout the book. Elements of witty humour, Japanese culture, total absurdity, amusing coincidences, philosophy and romance clash together to produce this beautiful novel. The city of Kyoto is described in great detail. Every character is an extremely fascinating individual with their own unique quirks, traits and problems, elevating the story and saturating its colours.

As our couple constantly cross paths with each another, a brave and fortunate gal discovering adulthood and an often unlucky but dedicated guy, who slowly tries to fill the moat to her crush’s heart, to strike at the right time that never comes, will they ever manage to fell into each another’s arms? Seems like the universe will try everything to prevent them from doing that, but at the end of the day there’s nothing else but “Do all you can and then wait for providence”.