Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri - National Book Award Winner

The book is set in Tokyo and follows the life of Kazu, a man born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor. Kazu's life is tied to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. However, his life is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo.

Through Kazu's eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn the intimate details of his personal story. The book is a powerful look into a marginalized existence in a shiny global megapolis. Kazu's life in the city began and ended in that park. He arrived there to work as a laborer in the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and ended his days living in the vast homeless village in the park, traumatized by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and shattered by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics.