Welcome to Litsy!

This book reads like YA fiction, which isn‘t bad, but not what I have come to expect from translated Japanese. It‘s simple writing, but it is absolutely charming and I almost want a copy for myself just for the recipes.

A brutal, unflinching dive into the psyche of a teenage boy unraveling amid the violence and neglect of Yokohama‘s slum. Stark and relentless, it‘s a haunting portrait of innocence lost and a society in decay, and pretty well written too.

It‘s no Kitchen but I don‘t regret reading it. I didn‘t connect with the short stories as I hoped I would but that could be because Kitchen left me with unreasonable expectations.

I love that she dedicated the American version to Kurt Cobain.

Say you had 7 days to find out how to stop a curse from killing you. How would you do it? Would you waste time or would you do the obvious way to stop it. What would be the obvious way to stop it? Well. You might not want to watch the tape in the first place. I say give this book a chance. There‘s a twist I didn‘t see coming and the characters aren‘t great. But the mystery aspect is pretty solid.

I loved that 📕 by one of Japan‘s most famous female writers. The co-existence of four women (wife servants concubines etc) in a bourgeois family during the Meiji area. The interactions are observed and described with minutiae giving the main characters a deep humanity. Very beautiful and delicately written. The ending was a stark contrast (no spoilers).

Did you ever want to be a tour guide in another country? Did you ever want to be one for the not so family friendly side of this country? Well, this book might change your mind. This book was a perfect with the idea of “What could happen if the tourists you‘re dealing with… might be something he isn‘t?” A quick slow burn. I recommend reading it at a least once.

This was by far the best book of the series! Even a tiny bit better than Bullet Train. The other books only play a small part here, so if you've read BT, you can go ahead and read this one. Seriously, I loved it. Once again, we're reading about murderers, and keep on thinking “Well, they're actually quite nice“. Because they somehow are. I loved Koko-san and Soda and of course Nanao. And Blanket and Pillow. See what I mean?!

And now it‘s a classic 🤣

In The Setting Sun, you read about a period Kazuko's life: a young woman who is deeply troubled.
She lives with her mother after her divorce.
After her father's death, they lose the house and have to move to the countryside and live a very poor life. On top of that her mother is constantly in poor health; and her brother has a drug addiction. Reading this, I felt the despair that came from Kazuko and felt very sorry for her.