A review by melslostinabook
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read Sweet Bean Paste for the #readingtheworld2025 challenge on Instagram, and it was such a good book. A heartwarming, introspective tale of an unlikely friendship, written in a simple, but captivating style, this book kept me engaged. It’s a character driven story that takes place in the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan, and it’s about an elderly woman, a middle-aged man, and a teenage girl, all with secrets in their pasts that they’d prefer stayed hidden.

Sentaro is a man who has lost all hope and motivation in life and is working at a dead-end job in a shop that sells dorayaki—a traditional Japanese pancake sandwich with a sweet red bean paste filling; Tokue is an elderly woman with a physical disability who applies for a job at the shop; Wakana, who frequents the dorayaki shop after school, is a poor young girl with a sad home life. With nothing apparent in common, these three are brought together and an unlikely friendship forms. I was moved to tears multiple times as I learned more about each character’s past.

It’s not a long book (just a little over 200 pages) and I finished it in less than two days—I actually listened to the audiobook—but these characters, their stories, and the societal issues they faced, will stay with me for a long time. Not only was it a captivating tale of friendship, it was also very informative about Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and what life was like for people diagnosed with it before the isolation law was repealed in 1995 (in Japan), and also I learned a lot about different Japanese confectioneries, and was hungry for most of the time I was reading! I would recommend this book to readers who like stories of unlikely friendships and personal redemption, and to those who appreciate learning about other cultures.

TWs: Sentaro gets drunk a couple of times; suicidal thoughts; self-harm




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