Translated by Eric Ozawa, Manilla Press 2003
Relaxed Reads – Ground Floor 895.636/YAG

Twenty-five year-old Takako starts living in the dusty little room above her uncle’s second-hand bookshop after a life changing crisis – breaking up with her boyfriend and losing her job at the same time. The bookshop is in Jimbocho, Tokyo, where hundreds of second-hand bookshops and all sorts of used books, and book lovers with different backgrounds and bits of history behind them, gather. Through helping her eccentric uncle, Satoru, she starts building new relationships with these peculiar but lovable people who visit Satoru’s tilted, quaint shop and finds a meaning in life, new hope, and a hidden secret of Satoru’s long-missing partner, Momoko….
Life sometimes demands a break. It takes time to melt the icicles inside you and let the stream start flowing again. When everything gets a bit too much, this is the kind of book you need with a quiet cup of coffee in your own space.

By Megumi O’Neill, Library and Learning Adviser