Ma-Chan is the narrator of 'A Quite Life', the moving story of an unusual family. She and her younger brother have grown up in the shadow of a brilliant father and brother, and a mother who had devoted her life to the care of both of them. Their father is a celebrated and fascinating novelist and their brother, though mentally handicapped, possesses an almost magical gift for musical composition. They are devoted to their work and to each other, almost to the exclusion to the rest of the family. Ma-Chan's life changes when her father leaves Japan to accept a visiting professorship in the States. At twenty, she suddenly finds herself the head of the household, having to redefine the patterns of their family life.
