In 2009, Japanese author Mieko Kawakami published a novel that would sear itself into the literary consciousness. Originally titled and published by Kodansha, Heaven arrived in English in 2021 through Europa Editions, translated by the acclaimed duo Sam Bett and David Boyd. The novel was shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 International Booker Prize and won the 2010 Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature. It tells the story of an unnamed 14-year-old boy, cruelly nicknamed "Eyes" for his lazy eye, who endures relentless physical and psychological torture at the hands of his middle school classmates. It is a story about the unbearable weight of adolescence, the philosophical search for meaning in suffering, and the fragile, life-saving power of an unexpected friendship.