Set My Heart on Fire

The first novel from Izumi Suzuki to be published in English: a candid, intimate exploration of passion, music and transgression

<i>Hope I’m in for a good time, I thought. Even if it’s just for tonight.</i><br><br>Set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo, <i>Set My Heart On Fire</i> tells the story of Izumi in her turbulent twenties. Through a series of disarmingly frank vignettes, author Izumi Suzuki presents an unforgettable portrait of a young woman encountering missteps and miscommunication, good music and unreliable men, powerful drugs and disorientating meds. Izumi usually keeps her relationships short but complicated, until she meets Jun.<br><br><i>Set My Heart on Fire</i> is a visceral novel about mistaken relationships and the convolutions of desire, about regret and acceptance. Pulsing through the narration is the protagonist’s love of music, a vital soundtrack spanning the Zombies, T. Rex and the Rolling Stones as well as underground Japanese psychedelic-rock bands such as the Tigers and the Tempters.