Seven Days in Tokyo

'Tantalising' Leo Vardiashvili, author of Hard by a Great Forest

'Profound' Iqbal Hussain, author of Northern Boy

Two strangers meet in Manhattan and spend a perfect night together. In Tokyo, they have seven days to see if that one night might mean something more.

Landon’s living alone in Tokyo as a British ‘expat’, Louie’s visiting while he anxiously waits for approval on his US visa. Against the backdrop of a misty Tokyo Spring, their precious time together is spent wandering into side streets and coffee shops, sharing unmade beds and plates of food. But as the days tick by, Louie’s expectations start to overtake reality and he falls too deeply for a life that’s not yet his.

Breathtakingly tender, Seven Days in Tokyo is an astonishing debut about the intricacies of desire and a search for belonging. It is a lyrical, immersive portrait of how some things, however beautiful and profound, are destined to be as short-lived as the cherry blossoms.

‘A study of misplaced desire and a poetic love letter to the city itself’ Jemma Kennedy, playwright

'Alvior's protagonist and love interest are as complexly built as a Sally Rooney couple' Zahra Barri, author of Daughters of the Nile

• 'A story of setting personal boundaries and then tossing them to the wind, of finding one’s own definition of love through heart wrenching trials and errors' Los Angeles Weekly Times

• 'Seven Days in Tokyo is the tantalising almost-kiss you know to be better than the kiss. An open-hearted, honest search for love and human connection. Drenched in the hectic culture of Tokyo and New York, yet entirely unmarred by cynicism. Alvior finds islands of peace within the chaos of modern life and love. This earnest gem of a novel too, is an island of literary respite' Leo Vardiashvili, author of Hard by a Great Forest

• 'A wonderful, charm of a novel. Jose’s protagonist and love interest are as complexly built as a Sally Rooney couple. And his prose also has a Rooney-esque simplicity, a smoothness, so familiar and readable that he makes his themes of foreignness and distance, relatable and identifiable . . . His rumination on unrequited love, the infamous holiday romance/long distance relationship, show that enduring romance isn’t just about love and a person but about a place and a home' Zahra Barri, author of Daughters of the Nile

• 'A quietly profound story of love, friendship and belonging in an alien land, where emotions are as glorious and ephemeral as the cherry blossom that falls all around our two protagonists. Exquisitely observed and beautifully detailed, this is an assured debut from a voice to watch' Iqbal Hussain, author of Northern Boy

• 'Seven Days in Tokyo beautifully captures the euphoria and melancholy of the modern transient love affair. It's both a study of misplaced desire and a poetic love letter to the city itself. Poignant, funny and delicate – I loved it' Jemma Kennedy, playwright

José Daniel was born and raised in Quezon City, the Philippines. At the turn of the century he moved to New York where he met his English partner of twenty-one years. Nowadays he spends most of his time between the UK, Manila, and a deserted white beach somewhere in the Philippines.

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