Kyoko Mori was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1957. When she was twelve years old, much like the young girl in Shizuko's Daughter, Mori's mother, Takako, committed suicide. Also like her fictional female character, Mori's childhood was traumatized by the harsh and sometimes physical disciplines that her father, Hiroshi, imposed on her, as well as by the unloving attitude of her stepmother, Michiko. There were, in other words, many similarities between Mori's childhood and the story of the young girl in Mori's novel.

Shortly before her death, Mori's mother decided that sending her daughter to the traditional Japanese public high school with its rigorous examination process would drain her daughter of her creative energies. So she helped Mori apply to Kobe Jogakum, a school in Japan that had been founded by two American women in 1890, and that focused its curriculum on the arts and language. When Mori...