A review by thereadingscorpios
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

4.5

 i enjoyed this book a lot. i felt so sorry for takako and really hoped things were going to look up for her sooner rather than later. takako and satoru didn’t have the best of relationships, since they hadn’t seen each other in a decade, but takako slowly warms up to him. he becomes the one comfort in her life and it’s exactly what she needs.

days at the morisaki bookstore is set in jimbocho, a small “book town” in tokyo, and yagisawa describes it so beautifully. i would love to visit it. it’s magical. takako is surrounded by books and is not a reader to start, but she comes to love books as well. the bookshop and the neighborhood become her new home, and all the people there become her second family.

as the story progresses we get to slowly see takako heal and it truly is so comforting. she learns so much about herself during this period of her life, and as she says herself: “i will always remember the days i spent there. because that’s where my real life began”. to me, takako is really living the dream. one of my own dreams is to work at a cozy bookstore, and that is definitely the correct way to describe the morisaki bookshop - cozy.

the concept of the story might be simple, but yagisawa’s storytelling feels like a warm hug. takako is able to turn her life around and it brings so much joy. the only thing i struggled a bit with was momoko, satoru’s wife. while she did get to explain herself and her choices (which i won’t spoil for you!), i would’ve loved to see a deeper dive into her brain. i do get that this is takako’s story and no one else’s, but what was actually going through momoko’s head when she made that specific life-changing decision? she didn’t really like to talk too much about herself to takako, and that was such a shame. but, that does not take away the fact that i truly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about reading it.