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smitchy 's review for:
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
by Satoshi Yagisawa
hopeful
lighthearted
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
If you love Japanese authors such as Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Before The Coffee Gets Cold), Michiko Aoyama (What You Are Looking For Is In The Library), or Hisashi Kashiwai (The Kamogawa Food Detectives) then Days at the Morisaki Bookshop will be for you. As with all of the above this is a gentle story, and while if you have experienced recent heartbreak, this may hit a nerve for you, I consider it a very gentle story with an overall uplifting theme, but it does touch on topics of love lost, abandonment (romantic), pregnancy loss which may be triggering for some people.
Takako's life falls apart when her boyfriend and co-worker of more than a year suddenly announces that he will be marrying his actual girlfriend (the one he has been dating for more than two years) in a few months. He is shocked that Takako is both surprised and upset by this announcement, after all, it's not like he is breaking up with her! Overwhelmed and ashamed for being the 'other woman', even though she had no idea she was, Takako quits her job so she doesn't have to face him every day.
When her uncle, Satoru, calls out of the blue a few weeks later Takako knows her mother has been meddling but faced with dwindling savings Takako takes him up on his offer to work in his second-hand bookshop in exchange for room and board. The Morisaki bookshop is located in Jimbocho, Tokyo. Jimbocho is a booklover's paradise, filled with second-hand stores each specialising in a particular genre or theme. As Takako gets used to the quirky regulars and reconnects to the uncle she has not seen in too many years, she also rediscovers her love of reading and finds herself in the process.
Takako's emotional journey, the development of her relationship with her uncle as he reveals his own experience with heartbreak, and the pervading love of literature is going to attract book loves of all varieties. Takako sometimes seems younger than her 25 years, but she grows through the book and eventually it is Takako helping Satoru with his own complicated love life. Surprisingly for Japanese fiction there is not a single mention of cat through the entire story.
Takako's life falls apart when her boyfriend and co-worker of more than a year suddenly announces that he will be marrying his actual girlfriend (the one he has been dating for more than two years) in a few months. He is shocked that Takako is both surprised and upset by this announcement, after all, it's not like he is breaking up with her! Overwhelmed and ashamed for being the 'other woman', even though she had no idea she was, Takako quits her job so she doesn't have to face him every day.
When her uncle, Satoru, calls out of the blue a few weeks later Takako knows her mother has been meddling but faced with dwindling savings Takako takes him up on his offer to work in his second-hand bookshop in exchange for room and board. The Morisaki bookshop is located in Jimbocho, Tokyo. Jimbocho is a booklover's paradise, filled with second-hand stores each specialising in a particular genre or theme. As Takako gets used to the quirky regulars and reconnects to the uncle she has not seen in too many years, she also rediscovers her love of reading and finds herself in the process.
Takako's emotional journey, the development of her relationship with her uncle as he reveals his own experience with heartbreak, and the pervading love of literature is going to attract book loves of all varieties. Takako sometimes seems younger than her 25 years, but she grows through the book and eventually it is Takako helping Satoru with his own complicated love life. Surprisingly for Japanese fiction there is not a single mention of cat through the entire story.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death