Just So Happens

A debut graphic novel of delicate beauty about outsiders and what we mean when we say 'home'.

Yumiko is a young Japanese woman who has made London her home. She has a job, a boyfriend; Japan seems far away. Then, out of the blue, her brother calls to tell her that her father has died in a mountaineering accident.

'I still remember arriving in the city for the first time... It wasn't easy... But here, London, is my home.'

Yumiko is a young Japanese woman who has made London her home. She has a job, a boyfriend; Japan seems far away. Then, out of the blue, her brother calls to tell her that her father has died in a mountaineering accident.

Yumiko returns to Tokyo for the funeral and finds herself immersed in the rituals of Japanese life and death – and confronting a decision she hadn’t expected to have to make.

Just So Happens is a graphic novel by a young artist and storyteller of rare talent. Fumio Obata’s drawing, in particular, is marvellous in its power and delicacy.