Don't Laugh at Other People's Sex Lives

“Funny, surprising, and hopeful, this novella is a poignant encapsulation of a complicated first love.” —Lilian Li, Women’s Prize-longlisted author of Number One Chinese Restaurant

A love story that feels both new and achingly true from one of Japan’s most acclaimed writers, with a foreword from Booker Prize finalist Katie Kitamura, capturing the intensity, uncertainties, and intimacy of falling for someone for the first time.

Art student Isogai first models for one of his tutors, the much older Yuri, then begins a passionate affair with her. As he gets to know her better, he struggles to understand his own emotions and place in the world, just as he yearns to be closer to her and for her to share more of herself with him.

A touching portrait of late adolescence, with Isogai captured with exasperation, humor, and tenderness, Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives is also, and above all else, an exploration of the exhilarating and destabilizing experience of a first love that defies prediction or explanation.