From the author of the critically-acclaimed debut People Who Knew Me
comes the story of one man's determination to abandon his will to live.
Jonathan Krause is a man with a plan. He is going to quit his
advertising job and, when his money runs out, he is going to die. He
just has one final mission: A trip to Japan. It's a trip he was supposed
to take with his girlfriend, Sara. It's a trip inspired by his regrets.
And it's a trip to pay homage to the Japanese, the inventors of his
chosen suicide technique.
In preparation for his final voyage, Jonathan enrolls in a Japanese
language class where he meets Riko, who has her own plans to visit her
homeland, for very different reasons. Their unexpected and unusual
friendship takes them to Japan together, where they each struggle to
make peace with their past and accept that happiness, loneliness, and
grief come and go--just like the cherry blossoms.
Haunted by lost love, Jonathan must decide if he can embrace the
transient nature of life, or if he must choose the certainty of death.