A review by meghan111
Moshi moshi by Banana Yoshimoto

3.0

"I found it strange that I could walk down the street and appear normal, just like anyone else. That I could be in complete turmoil inside, and yet my reflection in a shop window could look the same as it ever had."

"Whenever I get excited, or have any fun, or start looking forward to something, I can sense another me observing myself from between cold, harsh waves, like the Japan Sea in winter.

"The moment I heard the news, there was a space in which I accepted it, which grew as time went on. That went for everything."

Yoshie loses her father to a forced suicide. A woman her father had an affair with commits suicide with him in her car in the forest, but it seems like he didn't want to be there. Yoshie moves into a small apartment in a new neighborhood and starts working at a beloved local restaurant. Her mother asks to stay with her for a while. A love letter to the qualities that make up a good neighborhood - uniqueness, beauty, places where you are known - and an interior type of novel about a character's feelings and thoughts as time passes.