My review in one word: Huh?
Was intrigued by the title and the Japanese setting, but then it all went vague.
The little girl Amiko and her clear developmental challenges are ignored by her parents, her brother and her school(mates) and she bumbles through her life with an aloofness and disinterest that is unsettling. Other than that, I didn’t get it. Sorry.

You know when a story just speaks to you but you're not sure why. Well this is one of mine.

This is Amiko tells the story of Amiko, a little girl who has a form of neuro-divergence (its not made clear what). Amiko goes to school when she wants to; she struggles with relationships with her family and the other schoolchildren. At school she is ridiculed and bullied. At home she is mainly ignored.

Amiko does not grasp the most basic of human emotions and no one tries to explain the world to her. She is in love with a boy called Nori who only humiliates and bullies her.

This is a simple, sad tale of a little girl who no one takes the time to help. Her maladjustment in life makes her an easy target for bullies and it seems that her family cannot deal with her condition so they ignore her or chastise her for her difference.

I felt so sorry for Amiko. I wanted to pick her up and set her on her feet and tell her not everyone is cruel but autism is such a tricky condition to deal with and, never having had a family member anywhere on the spectrum I would probably do the same wrong things that everyone in the book does.

I loved this novella. The writing is beautiful; there's no word wasted. It is simple and lovely. I continue my love affair with Japanese literature.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the advance review copy.

There were so many aspects of this that I liked but just felt like they weren't explored enough. I wish we could have gone multiple layers depeer!

This is a curious novella as it’s quite hard to categorise.
Amiko lives with her parents and brother and observes the world around her in a peculiarly unique way. The story follows Amiko before and after her mother’s pregnancy resulting in a still born daughter. Amino’s confusion and misunderstanding towards the world around her and her insular singularity is a mixture of charming , naive and unsettling resulting in a read that leaves unsure as to how to feel towards this young girl. There is a sense that she’s abandoned to her own ‘ bubble’ or is there a stubbornness within that stops her wanting to connect with others .
A disquieting read as sympathy towards Amiko fluctuates. As to Natsuko Imamura’s message - purpose for the novel this would certainly be a point of individual reader interpretation… a conundrum of a book