Piper Nuelle

This book is a book that is different from any normal book I have read… It has power… It has meaning … And it has a story that echoes many people’s lives and how they are feeling but shows you a way to try and find a way to appreciate what you have through their stories.

I found this gem of a book in one of my favourite places to buy books… TK MAXX. Its usual price is set at £9.99 but I only paid £6.99. I spotted it due to its beautiful front cover, it looks like a window looking out over a couple of houses and a pretty little pink cherry blossom tree. Perched on the window sill is a sweet little black cat with a pink collar. A few random books are strewn on the side along with a cup and a plant. It just all has a very welcoming effect and pulls you in to read. All the pink on the cover shimmers when you turn the book in light, along with the shimmering green of the cat’s eyes that glow… friendly little eyes that once again pull you in to read.

The book is split into five chapters, each chapter follows a different person, family and character but what is clever is that all the stories sort of interlock, they intertwine within each other. A main character in one chapter story may appear as a secondary character in another chapter story but they all add depth and meaning to each other.

For example the first story follows a young woman Ms Fujiki who feels she is wasting her life at her job. She moved away from the country to Tokyo and had big plans and dreams… But instead she feels she is stagnant by working at a department store ‘Eden’. She ends up at the local library to gain skills for another job and meets the librarian who seems to have otherworldly intuition and gives her set books to read on her chosen subject, but also a wild card to read and a felt toy of a frying pan. As she reads the wild card book which is actually a kids book she uncovers things about herself by realising she stopped looking after herself and her body. She learns a recipe and with inspiration from the frying pan she tries to cook herself healthy. Then an awkward encounter with a customer and being rescued by another colleague she also realises that she didn’t really try at her job, she became almost like a robot, just on autopilot… She decides to breath, to take time to appreciate her job and those around her and to cook, it makes her happier. She still wishes to learn the skills but she’s more calm and collected. Eden, the store she works at ends up becoming a character in itself, and it features in a few of the stories and Ms Fujiki ends up cropping up and interacting with other characters, as does one of her coworkers that she is friends with in the glasses department.

It intertwines with say another character Natsumi who was a former magazine editor but after having a child gets demoted and she becomes unhappy as she sees herself stuck but everyone around her rising up and doing what they dream. After visiting the library and meeting the mysterious librarian she is given her books to read but also one about astrology, which talks about the moon and the sun and their paths. Then she is also gifted a felted toy of ‘The Earth’. She then learns that people dream of different things and everyone wants what the other person has, a bit like a ‘merry go round’, the business woman doing well for herself wishes she had a child and a family, but the woman with child wishes she had a career and feels resentful… She learns her lesson about her world and what works in her world. It soon turns out a character from the first story appears, the guy from the glasses department. He has contacts at a magazine company that loves mums and kids and is flexible. He puts her name forward and she ends up getting a job there where she feels empowered but also able to still love her little world with her family bubble and child. This then also intertwines with another story and character who writes books and needs a publisher and so on…

This book was so different from what I usually read. It’s individual chapters and stories all resonated with me on some level, some more than others of course. And there are chapters that focus more on female leads and then others on male leads, so this is something for everyone.

I felt the author really grasped the world of these characters and made it feel realistic, even if in reality they all come from another culture. The book originated in Japan and was translated into other languages so it could have a wider reach. It also won an award by Waterstones in 2023 (A Waterstones best fiction of 2023 book) and after reading this book I can understand why it won the award. It felt realistic because these characters had emotions, they had lives that mirror other people’s lives, they had normal jobs not some high flying job that is truly unattainable for the masses, it had families and singles, it had married people and divorcees, young and old… Something for everyone to be inspired.

I would 100% recommend this book especially if you are going through say some sort of crisis, whether that be midlife, a parent feeling lost, feeling lonely, overwhelmed, retired and lost, having dreams unfulfilled… There are so many reasons to read this book and so many ways it can open your eyes and help you see your life in a different light and point of view.

I hope you enjoyed my review on this book, if you did let me know, and have you read it? What did you like about it? Did it help you at a time you needed it?

Xo Piper Xo