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

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

 The cover made me do it. Today, we do judge a book by its cover (and rightly so), even though there are also cases when you find gems inside books with simple, uninteresting covers.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop tells the stories of: 1. Takako, a 20-something woman who broke up with her boyfriend, fell into depression and quit her job, then met again with a distant uncle, Satoru, and agreed to work in his secondhand bookshop in Jimbocho. Here she found a love for reading which she had never had before.
2. Satoru himself, an eccentric little man whose wife left him years ago. Suddenly, she walked back into his life, just like that, like she never left. After bonding with Takako, the real reason why she left became clear.

Maybe I'm so used to depressing Japanese literature that when I read this book (that's supposed to be light and heart-warming, I guess), I couldn't find the warmth. Even though Takako was described to have depression, I don't think it was translated well into writing. There is nothing special about the writing and the story. Aside from the description of Jimbocho (Tokyo's famous book district) and it does have some noteworthy quotes, I do not find it as charming as I expected.

One good thing about the English translation of this book is that it's very easy to understand and rarely uses any 'big' words, so it is suitable for beginners.