“For a brief time…I felt that sense of camaraderie with my own species again.”

Every now and then, you come across a book that is as close to perfect as you can ever hope for. Of course, that ‘perfection’ is entirely personal and differs from person to person. For me, Michiko Aoyama’s delightful collection of interconnected short stories is one such ‘near-perfect’ work. The fact it is so well known and has good reviews suggests I’m not alone in my thinking.

The premise is that of a variety of Japanese people – from young adult to retired, male, female, employed and stressed through to unemployed and depressed – who all end up coming to a certain community centre that houses a library. There, they come across the initially terrifying Sayuri Komachi, the librarian who turns out to be as lovely as she is impressive. She seems to be able to see into their souls and the books she suggests for them always turn out to be exactly right for changing their lives. Similarly, the extra ‘gift’ she gives them, as a result of her perpetual hobby of felting, always seems to be magically prophetic. Who is this strange woman? And where do her magic powers come from?

Without giving too much away, you do learn more about the librarian as the stories progress but, although she remains always enigmatic, this is no supernatural tale. Instead, the less-than-hidden moral is that we can all find our own way through to happiness if we’re given the right push to see things differently. Books are hugely powerful for helping you to do this.

Not only is this a message I can get behind, as a writer and booklover, but I also appreciate the warmth towards humanity – and a great deal of faith in people – that the writer feels here. Ten years ago I would have been on the same page. Alas, I feel a little like some of the characters in this book, living a life that is perfectly nice but feeling dispirited when I think of my fellow humans.

This book then has what I would call the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ effect: the ability to give you hope that people can actually be nice to each other, support one another and surprise everyone by how they grow and develop. This is sorely needed these days. Post-covid times are pretty bleak on the whole, wherever you are. For a brief time, while reading about characters from a different culture with a different mentality, I felt that sense of camaraderie with my own species again.

What is particularly noteworthy is that all of these characters are very ordinary living ordinary lives. There’s no great trauma here; no heroism in the face of impossible adversity. The characters could be you and me in our day-to-day lives. They are not especially nice, or attractive. Indeed, one or two are almost a little too mean spirited for my liking. But they all come out better in some way; more human, more vulnerable, more accepting of other people and of their place in the universe. It takes great skill as a writer to pull this off. Michiko Aoyama succeeds brilliantly.

Normally, I say the quality of a fictional work is based on how much I care about the characters at the end. This isn’t quite the case here. I do care about the librarian, and want to know more of her story, and one or two of the characters I’d like to see again. But on the whole, I think I’d like another set of stories to see more lives changed in small, gentle ways. Reading this book was almost meditational. I can’t think of any other book that has given me that feeling before.

Perhaps best about this book though is the revelation of how the librarian manages to perform her ‘magic’ with these characters. I won’t give the game away, but the answer is surprising but exactly right at the same time. I found the conclusion very satisfying and it is likely this book will remain in my soul a long time.

My Verdict:

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 6.9 million times.