Water Moon

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the owner of a Tokyo pawnshop to find the place ransacked. Its most precious acquisition is gone, and her father is missing. The shop sits on a backstreet, and most passersby see only a cozy ramen restaurant. Only people who are lost can find the door, and they come to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Into the wreckage walks a charming stranger, a young physicist. Unlike the shop's other customers, he offers help instead of asking for it. Hana accepts, and the two set out through a mystical world to track down her father and the stolen choice.

Their route is strange and physical. They pass through rain puddles, ride paper cranes, cross the bridge that links midnight to morning, and wander a night market floating in the clouds. The book is a fantasy novel with a dreamlike, enchanted tone, and the magic is part of the setting from the first pages.

The closer the pair come to the truth, the more pressure falls on Hana. She is hiding a secret of her own, and she must decide whether to reveal it. The choice she faces cannot be taken back once it is made.