Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells

I absolutely loved this book. And I think I read it at the right time (not to mention the right age), shortly after seeing Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story.

He explicitly mentions this scene at the end of the film, which is one that I genuinely will never forget:

“Life is disappointing, isn't it?” says a young girl who's just lost her mother, near the movie's end. Her sister-in-law, only slightly older but a widow already, breaks into a radiant smile. “Yes,” she says, in the voice of classical Japan. “It is.”

If you're interested in Japan, and (ideally, like me) getting on a bit, I highly recommend this quite beautiful rumination on Japan, aging and death.