The Lucky Ride: A Novel Full of Opportunity by Yasushi Kitagawa (Paperback) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Magical Realism - World Literature - Japan

RELEASE DATE: 10/7/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE AND ARRIVE 1-2 DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE)

Translated from the Japanese by Takami Nieda

Combining the whimsy and possibility of The Midnight Library with the mystery and revelatory power of The Secret, a heartwarming and inspiring novel about a man on a magical ride who is unexpectedly offered a chance at happiness.

After losing multiple contracts, Shuichi must make restitution to his company. Faced with this large, unanticipated debt, the trip to Paris he and his wife have been planning for a year must be canceled. Traveling to Europe was more than a vacation; it offered the hope of reaching their teenage daughter who has stopped going to school and will not leave her room. Feeling despondent and directionless, Shuichi believes he’s the unluckiest person in Japan.

Then a strange taxi mysteriously appears at his door. The driver promises to take Shuichi not to a destination he needs, but to where his next opportunity will be. With nothing to lose, he settles into the backseat and embarks on a series of magical rides that will teach him surprising life lessons, including how luck is not inherent—it’s an investment built over time and even over generations.

A compassionate and uplifting fable, The Lucky Ride will make you reconsider what’s important, how to be more present in your life, and empower you to create happiness not just for yourself but for those to come.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Yasushi Kitagawa was born in Tokyo and raised in Saijo City in Ehime Prefecture. He graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University and in 1998 founded a tutoring school in Yokohama called so-mei. He began his writing career in 2005, and his unusual worldview is admired by many people. Many of his works have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese. The Lucky Ride is his first novel in English.

TRANSLATOR BIO: 

Takami Nieda translates from Japanese into English and has received numerous residencies and grants in support of her translations, including the PEN/Heim Translation Fund. Her translations of Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro and The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart by Chesil were awarded the Freeman Book Award for YA Literature. She teaches writing and translation at Seattle Central College.