Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa

Description

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.

Review

Translated from the Japanese, this book is quirky and maybe an acquired taste.

Takako doesn't get jilted, but she may as well have been. Her long term boyfriend tells her he is getting married, but not to her! As you can expect she is heartbroken and also this leads to her giving up her job.

An uncle she hasn't seen for many years offers her a room rent free above his bookshop. This might appeal to many readers, but Takako doesn't read books. When she agrees to the arrangement she has to move a lot of old books to get to her room, and that is all they are to her piles of books. Until she decides to read one, and then things begin to change for her.

This tale is not like a lot of other Japanese books I have read. There is no magical bookshop or books. Takako just learns a lot from her Uncle about life and of course from books. Just when I thought the book was going exactly where I thought it would a new character appears, and the book changes completely. A little intrigue as to what is happening, and who the new person is, and what they are about led me to love the book even more.

A gently paced book with loveable characters I came to care for, this is a comfort read.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

Comments

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