Reading Journal 2024: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Novel
Author: Satoshi Yagisawa
The story kind of snuck up on me, told with a gentle hand and a quiet urgency. It’s mostly relationship drama, and much of this unfolds through conversations a 25 year old Takako has with the different people suddenly thrust into her life after things start to fall apart. A sudden phone call from a distant uncle brings her to his bookshop in the heart of Tokyo’s famed “book district”, where she finds herself discovering new things about her past, herself in the present and finds fresh vision for the future.
Parallel to Takako’s story is her uncle’s story, which is where we find the real heart behind this novel. If he finds her in a time of need, she comes into his life in a time of need. And it is in the simple confines of this bookshop that their worlds are able to find meaning in this sudden collision of experiences. Not simply in the bookshop, but in the pages of the books that can help us understand and tell our own stories.
It’s a quiet novel, largely focused on the routines and the day to day happenings of our main characters, but the relational stakes are also weighty and interesting. It’s also endearing, giving us plenty of ways into these characters lives with their quirks and sensibilities. The more I sat with them and was content simply letting this small sliver of their lives play out as it would, the more I was able to care about the end result. I enjoyed too, the emphasis on persons in different points of transition, even where they aren’t necessary and wanted ones.
The Stories of my Life 