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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A quick & wholesome read!
Sweet Bean Paste tells the story of Sentaro, a man with a troubled past who runs a small dorayaki (sweet bean pancake) shop with little passion for life. His world changes when Tokue, an elderly woman with a disfigured hand but a magical touch for making sweet red bean paste, offers to help and brings new meaning to his work. As their unlikely friendship deepens, Sentaro learns about Tokue’s hidden history and begins to find healing, purpose, and connection through their shared love of food.
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A really wholesome and heartwarming tale, with its own tinge of sadness intertwined.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
📖 This was such a sweet read! If you’re looking for a short, translated, Asian authored, disability rec this book is it! Thanks for recommending it to me Hali!
The premise is an ex-con is working at a pastry shop to pay off his debts after getting released from prison. He is depressed and buys the bean paste for the store’s dorayaki. An old woman, Tokue, comes to him asking for a job and she makes incredible homemade bean paste. Sentaro agrees to take her on but doesn’t tell his boss. Partially because the old woman’s hands are disfigured and he doesn’t want to risk asking his boss and his boss disapproving. The two form an adorable friendship and help each other a lot.
Sentaro doesn’t find out until much later that his friend and bean paste maker is from an isolated leper community on the outskirts of the city where she was forced to quarantine even long after her Hansen’s disease was cured. It isn’t until 1996 that Japan allows the Hansen patients to leave and most don’t have any family left. What unfolds is a heartbreaking and emotional story about Tokue’s life before meeting Sentaro and how much working at the store meant to Tokue.
I didn’t even realize leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease) was even a thing still. And that it took until the late 90’s to start normalizing people with the cured disease to become free from their prison is wild. This is a book about what a worthy life means and the idea that a human’s worth is defined by more than what they can do. Every detail in this story was so beautiful and heartwarming. I definitely teared up towards the end. Also the letters back and forth between Tokue and Sentaro are gold. Pure gold!
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4,5 ⭐️
This story was exactly the thing I like. An unexpected and not ordinary friendship and beauty of everyday life. Although the ending was a little disappointing to me. Seemed unfinished and unpolished of sorts? Hence missing half a star.
This story was exactly the thing I like. An unexpected and not ordinary friendship and beauty of everyday life. Although the ending was a little disappointing to me. Seemed unfinished and unpolished of sorts? Hence missing half a star.
this book was so eye opening, throughout the book i grew to love all the characters and all their personality quirks all added up and made sense. it was so heartbreaking though about everything tokue experienced