“The lake was always there, silent and unchanging, reflecting everything yet revealing nothing.” Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter The novel opens with Chihiro, a young mural painter in […]
Japanese literature
Moshi Moshi
“The dead don’t go anywhere. They’re all here. Each moment is always overlapping with another.” Chapter 1: The Beginning of Grief Yoshie, a young woman in Tokyo, struggles […]
Japanese literature
Hardboiled & Hard Luck
“The night was deep, the stars were out, and I felt like the only person left in the world.” Hardboiled The first novella follows an unnamed woman who […]
Japanese literature
Asleep
“I was always asleep. Even when I was awake, I was asleep.” Night and Night’s Travelers The first story follows Shibami, a young woman grieving the death of […]
Japanese literature
Kitchen
“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen.” Chapter 1: Kitchen The novel opens with Mikage Sakurai, a young woman who has recently lost her […]
French literature
Fresh Water for Flowers
“The dead don’t go anywhere. They’re all here. Each one in a box.” Fresh Water for Flowers follows Violette Toussaint, a cemetery caretaker in a small French town, […]
French literature
The Book of My Mother
“I loved her, I loved her, I loved her, and now she is no more.” The Book of My Mother by Albert Cohen is a deeply personal and […]
English literature
The Light Between Oceans
“You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.” Part One The novel opens with Tom Sherbourne, a World War […]