Synopsis
Iva Chernova arrived in the hush of Uji with one suitcase, a four-month contract, and a wound she'd never named. At forty-one, she's a translator who once signed away her own voice—and never forgave herself for how easy it was. Now she's been hired to render the private letters of a dead poet laureate, work that should be quiet, methodical, safe. But buried in the archive is an unnumbered page, a confession written by a man who knew someone would one day read it: a thing he could never say aloud. As Iva follows the trail of initials and forgotten place names into the misted hills north of the city, she finds herself drawn toward the poet's grandson—a guarded man rebuilding the house where the secrets began. Two reserved souls, an ocean of cultural distance, and a decades-old injustice that refuses to stay buried. To restore the dead poet's truth, Iva will have to risk reclaiming her own. A slow-burning, atmospheric romance about silence, second chances, and the courage it takes to finally speak.
