My Sister, Nozomi (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 277)

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“Nozomi” is the story of a brother and a sister, Naoki and Nozomi, who meet for the first time when they’re teenagers. Naoki, the oldest, is nineteen and is treading water in his life. He’s reached that age between adulthood and childhood, when one becomes aware of the shape of one’s life hardening around them. Nozomi is much younger and lives with their father, who is emotionally distant and unavailable. Nozomi is casting around for a sense of family and belonging. The story is remarkably patient, letting these two orbit each other and find their way to one another. Naoki is a tentative caregiver. He doesn’t trust himself not to mess it up. He wants their father to step into the role, but he doesn’t trust him to do so either. Nozomi remains a mystery to him — she’s walled off by her headphones and her cell phone — but the story articulates the great warmth of feeling between them. In many families, love can feel inarticulate and quiet, but it’s there. - Brandon Taylor

About the Author: Sacha Idell is a writer and translator from Northern California. His fiction appears in the Chicago Tribune, Ploughshares, Slice, and elsewhere, while his translations include work by the Japanese novelist Kyūsaku Yumeno. He is Fiction Editor of The Arkansas International and an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas, where he is a Walton Fellow.

About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction. Recommended Reading is supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For other links from Electric Literature, follow us, or sign up for our eNewsletter.