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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
💭 On the Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, where the heartbeats of visitors from around the world are collected. The heartbeats of people still alive or who have passed away continue to echo. I found the idea behind this novel rather intriguing. However, this archive only really comes into the story at the end.
There are several different threads to the story, which is quite confusing at first, but does become clear eventually. Mainly it's told from Suichi's point of view - his mother has recently died and he has moved back to his childhood home to sort through her things. He becomes aware of a child who has been visiting the house and making off with low-value stuff. Kenta has an unhappy homelife, and few friends in school. As the trust between them grows, they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. The odd and you can say adorable way the relationship between Shuichi and Kenta builds is so smile-worthy. Their journey will lead them to Teshima. It's at this visit where the entirety of the story comes together.
I enjoyed immersing in each of their thoughts which were entirely representative of their character, the one you imagined complementing the one the author gifts us. The philosophical nature of the narrative sparks endless pondering.
Ethereal feel to a more than powerful narrative, the figurative speech is walking on the side of poetry. The author paints the images with an evocative brush and the emotions with a poignant one. The philosophy in the writing was sincere and heartfelt. The author understood the effects of trauma.
This book is also about memories, how fluid or cemented or both they can be. About healing and the power of friendship.
This is a book that could so easily have veered towards sentimentality but not at all. As with many Japanese-based tales, there is a sense of melancholy and the first half of the book has an underlying sense of sadness. But as the story progresses a powerful and deep tenderness emerges; the aforementioned library brings the story to its denouement with unexpected results.
Overall, The Library of Heartbeats is a little bit of a slow burner, but it is built into a powerfully emotional book. This is a quiet book without bangs and whistles, although there are plenty of emotive impacts, but Messina's ability to delve into the human spirit, and memory, and deal with loss, makes for a spellbinding story that works its magic around you all the same.
Truly beautiful- let yourself escape, breathe and immerse yourself and your heart in this wonderful book.
𝐏.𝐒 Much like Imai-Messina’s previous work, The Phone Box at the Edge of the World(which I loved), the story is about coming to terms with loss and moving on.
Also, Laura's books are based on a very beautiful concept and we got to learn about such amazing places in Japan like Phone Booth and the Library of Heartbeats!!
𝐏.𝐒.𝐒 The theme of 'hearts' elegantly thrums through every part of this novel and I learned so many interesting things about the heart and how heartbeats sound in different languages!!
🔸𝑴𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🔸𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 4.08 (833)
🔸𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆:Literary Fiction
🔸𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: Yes!!
I think the story was rather beautifully told. This book is heart-affirming, heart-warming, and heart-wrenching, all the hearts.
🔸 𝑭𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔:
"Everything should start, he thought, by observing things from where they are."
"We have to understand as many creatures as we can, even the ones that are most different from us, if we want to understand ourselves"
"Having no memory made people more determined and capable."
"Shūichi owed her so much. Above all, he owed her the work that coloured his days: his career as an illustrator. His mother had known to value his wide-open gaze that, ever since he was a boy, saw cats as secret messengers, windows as magical portals and insects that joyfully came out in summer as invaders from other planets. She had believed in him even when nothing suggested he deserved it.
Since her passing, something in Shūichi had been extinguished. He wouldn’t have been able to put it into words, but another knot in the rope that kept him tied to the world had come loose."
"His strongest memory of her, though, was the faith she had in everyone. If ever she couldn’t find positive qualities, she would invent them. Ever since he was young, she had shown Shūichi that there was always a way to love people. She didn’t ignore their faults, but she didn’t load herself up with the weight of nasty words either. ‘Imagine how much they already suffer just by being with themselves!’ she’d say. Even commenting on the most atrocious crimes, his mother explained that it was possible to put someone in prison without having to hate them. It was a relief for Shūichi to discover that he could respect people who made mistakes too.
This, more than anything else she said, had profoundly influenced him."
"It’s different for children. They find meaning while they’re doing things, not before or after."
"The world is big, Shūichi, travel! Look how much space there is on the planet! Remember that when a place is too small for you, you can always leave. Leaving doesn’t have to be a bad thing."
"Don’t judge what you don’t know,"
"In the same way, every authentic feeling had to start and end with itself: joy had to be independent from the world’s response; happiness couldn’t depend on anyone else.
Everything, essentially, was in seeking outside what was already inside.
The first step, however, was the most complicated: understanding what we have inside."
"But even if you can’t remember it, it’s OK.’
Some things are nice to remember forever."
"If you’re going to do something, you have to do it properly."
"To turn down the volume of the world: put in earphones."
"To make things less important: don’t give them names (don’t name the chair or the clock, or the boy in your class)."
"To see nothing: stare at a light bulb (only for a few seconds until everything becomes a big yellow spot)."
"He realised this was how you know you care about someone: when you see them where they aren’t."
"Over the years, he had learned that the real joy of things resided in not revealing them, and feeling happy just because you know they’re true."
"But we’re not all capable of trust; trust is a precious thing."
"There are certain things you only do if someone tells you not to."
"Love is never alone. Fear is always right beside it."
"Love is precisely that risk."
"This was the problem with adults: they weren’t sincere; they needed to tell lies. Because no one can always be right. And anyone who’s fixated on being right needs to lie."
"the older boy’s grandma said you shouldn’t mix up the kingdoms. Things in the sea should stay in the sea, and things on the land should stay on the land; including things like plastic and paper."
"If you don’t think you can improve a person’s life, it’s not fair to place yourself next to them."
"falling in love can only happen in silence and without caution."
"that people had things but not the words to say them. The words might have existed, but nobody could find them when they needed them."
"So, it’s true, you can die from love. You can die from a broken heart."
"The truth is that we never have an absolute value. Nothing and no one has an absolute value. We are who we are thanks to the names we are called in the world, the roles we carve out for ourselves in the lives of others whispered Shūichi."
"When we cry, we save ourselves a little."
"TO BE HAPPY, FIRST OF all you need to imagine being happy."
"The end doesn’t care how things start,’ Sayaka wrote. Faith is the only thing that makes a difference: if you believe in happiness enough to imagine it, eventually it will come."
"that two solitudes can become a companionship. That the world, when seen through two pairs of eyes, can take on colour."
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai-Messina
Narrated by Kenichiro Thomson
I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Manilla Press and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Blurb
To find what you have lost, you must listen to your heart . . .
On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo.
Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls Shuichi, a forty-year-old illustrator, who returns to his home-town to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi's house.
Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . .
My Opinion
Recently I was disappointed by The Phone Box at the Edge of the World but I thought I would give Laura Imai-Messina another try when I saw that her latest book was available as an audiobook. Unfortunately for me this was missing something and for a book that had so much potential I was once again disappointed. An emotional read, that is worth a read, just don't expect too much.
Rating 3/5
Narrated by Kenichiro Thomson
I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Manilla Press and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Blurb
To find what you have lost, you must listen to your heart . . .
On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo.
Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls Shuichi, a forty-year-old illustrator, who returns to his home-town to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi's house.
Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . .
My Opinion
Recently I was disappointed by The Phone Box at the Edge of the World but I thought I would give Laura Imai-Messina another try when I saw that her latest book was available as an audiobook. Unfortunately for me this was missing something and for a book that had so much potential I was once again disappointed. An emotional read, that is worth a read, just don't expect too much.
Rating 3/5
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.8 Stars
One Liner: Sweet and melancholic; slice-of-life type novel
Teshima is a tiny peaceful island in Japan with a library of heartbeats. It’s where the heartbeats of people from around the world are collected and safeguarded. Away in Kamakura, Shuichi, a 40-year-old illustrator, arrives to renovate his home after his mother’s death. He spies an 8-year-old boy shadowing the house. After much deliberation, he approaches the kid in his own manner.
As Shuichi and Kenta form a bond, they decide to travel to the library of heartbeats. Here, the journey is as important as the destination.
The story comes in the third-person POV of Shuichi and Kenta, with a few chapters from others.
My Thoughts:
I went into the book with no expectations. From what little I’ve read of Japanese Lit, I know it’s different and needs patience. The beginning is vague and intriguing, even if the pacing is slow. The story comes together in the second half. However, the book will work better if you go with the flow. Categorizing the sections can be confusing.
There is a short note about surnames and pronunciation before we get into the story. It was quite helpful.
Suichi is not an easy character to like at times, but he manages to be very much real. Kenta is, of course, a darling little boy you can’t help but empathize with. Sayaka is fine, though she seems more like a side character. I couldn’t connect with her.
I love the explanation of kanji (Chinese/ Japanese alphabet) and the mini-stories woven around them. Since the alphabet is also provided, it was easy to understand the explanation.
While the writing is melancholic, halfway through, we realize there’s more sadness and death in the book. We see themes like grieving the death of loved ones, dysfunctional families, a wee bit of bullying, types of mourning and moving on, bonding between two seemingly unrelated people (the man and the boy), etc.
A few recurring themes are happiness, past (memories), acceptance, and opening one’s heart to love. There are some ‘moral’ dilemmas too.
The book needs to be read with proper formatting. The ARC (PDF) is missing italics and scene breaks. This made it a bit hard to track the jumps. Luckily, I thought I understood the pattern, but turns out I was wrong and figured it out in the last quarter. The saving grace is that what was supposed to be story-in-story was very much a part of the narrative. I didn’t skip those sections, so I didn’t miss any info.
While the library of Heartbeats is the title, the book is about hearts and emotions. TBH, I expected a little more about the wonderful place and the setting. But the focus is more on the main characters. I’d have loved it if the island played a more prominent role.
The book has an author’s note, glossary, and acknowledgement page, providing a little extra insight into the content. Don’t skip these, as you will understand why the entire premise has such melancholy to it. And the Heartbeat Archives is a real place (good if you already know; I thought it was fiction).
To summarize, The Library of Heartbeats is a mellow and bittersweet story of loss, grief, family, friendships, and finding love (not romantic) to have the courage to live again. It may not be for everyone and definitely not a book I would NOT recommend if you are already down. While it does have a hopeful ending, the overall sadness will further affect your spirits.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK (Manilla Press), for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #TheLibraryOfHeartbeats
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
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
I found The Library of Heartbeats a little bit of a slow burner, but it built into a powerfully emotional book. As Shuichi and Kenta get to know one another, they find that each can provide the other with something missing from their lives. We learn about their very different lives, and the losses they have both faced. They begin to form a bond which is truly beautiful and, together, they eventually visit the island of Teshima where the library of heartbeats exists. It's at this visit where the entirety of the story comes together and actually made me a bit of a wreck!
Beautifully translated from Italian by Lucy Rand, I highly recommend if you love an emotional read!
Beautifully translated from Italian by Lucy Rand, I highly recommend if you love an emotional read!
slow-paced