STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES

Set in modern-day Tokyo, Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries is a series of vignettes, presented as episodes in the lives of four women. Touko and Chihiro are roommates in a one-bedroom apartment. Akiyo pines after her college friend while making a living as a prostitute. Suzuki lives alone and wanders through her daily estoutine wondering about love. Except for Touko and Chihiro, the characters in these stories don't intersect. Instead, their lives unravel independent from one another in isolated sections of the city. Themes like emotional strength reoccur throughout the book as the women suffer from jealousy, loneliness and unrequited love. Despite their close quarters, Touko and Chihiro keep their feelings to themselves, quietly coming undone behind their calm smiles.