Sometimes a book feels disconnected, or "lost in translation" if it is a translated work, while I am reading it. But then the end comes and re-frames my entire experience of the book. A Girl on the Shore by Inio Asano kept me lost throughout but by the time I get to its conclusion, it finally connects. The story centers on a 14 or 15 year old girl in Japan and her struggle to find connection in the midst of sexual escapades with a classmate. There are explicitly drawn scenes, which typically I would find off putting but here I found them to be in service of Asano's themes of trying to find connection with others in any way possible. The struggle is how does one navigate discovering who they themselves are, while also wanting to explore others, in a way that doesn't leave casualties? How do you grow up but not hurt others in the process? Asano illuminated my sense that as I have grown, I too have left a turbulent wake. What is the way forward and how can we do things differently? Asano's insights show more than they tell and in that way they are a powerful.