Available Formats
The Lucky Ride: A Novel Full of Opportunity
By (Author) Yasushi Kitagawa
Translated by Takami Nieda
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
HarperCollins
28th October 2025
United States
General
Fiction
Fiction: literary and general non-genre
Fiction in translation
Magical realism
Family life fiction / Stories about family
Paperback
272
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 hes 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 inherentits an investment built over time and even over generations.
A compassionate and uplifting fable, The Lucky Ride will make you reconsider whats important, how to be more present in your life, and empower you to create happiness not just for yourself but for those to come.
Translated from the Japanese by Takami Nieda
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. Many of his works have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese. The Lucky Ride is his first novel in English.