The appeal of Harumi Setouchi is her beautiful prose. It is simply impossible to translate.

Setouchi recreates a moment in Japan's Taisho period when radical C20 ideas were being first explored - feminism, socialism, anarchism, free love and all the ususal suspects. Taking the feminist magazine "Seito" as her canvas, Setouchi sketches the incidents, affairs and ideas of its leading members, particularly country girl/coquette Ito Noe. Bizarrely, however, Setouchi writes an introductory chapter which summarises the events of the period she is going to cover, depriving her subsequent story of any suspense or tension. Even more strangely, her story stops before the most interesting incidents she has telegraphed start. Overall, one for dedicated Japanophiles or social historians only.