Note: This post contains an affiliate link. If you buy from my link, I will earn a commission.
After highly enjoying reading What You Are Looking for is in the Library, I wanted to read more healing fiction books And so I went to FullyBooked to choose my next read. I imagine my books sitting on my TBR shelf, sighing disappointedly as they watch me buy another book instead of picking from the existing lineup.
The book I chose to read next is Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. Just like my last read, this book is also a Japanese novel translated into English.
What Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is All About
The book is about a twenty-five-year-old, Takako. Until her boyfriend, Hideaki, broke up with her, she had enjoyed a relatively easy existence. She had expected to marry him, but instead, he casually ended things with her to marry another woman. Takako’s life goes into freefall after that—she loses her job and isolates herself from everyone else, as she spirals into depression.
It’s during this stage of her life that she gets a call from a distant relative, her uncle Satoru. He’s lived an unconventional life, especially after his wife, Momoko, left him out of the blue five years earlier. He runs a secondhand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district. Takako once looked down on Satoru’s life, but she reluctantly accepts his offer of living in a tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping him out at the store.
It was supposed to be a temporary one until she could get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, she surprises herself when she develops a passion for books, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she also makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup.
But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears in her life, forcing Takako to rely on her uncle again, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they’ve gained in the bookshop.
What I Thought of This Book
This is an easy read with only 147 pages. Same as with other healing fiction novels, the stories are very simple but heartwarming.
What I enjoyed reading about this story:
- How books and reading can be one’s emotional support, and can even heal
- Love how Tatako’s relationship with her uncle Satoru evolved from judgment to understanding to familial love
- Love Tatako’s slow life at Jimbocho
- I thought Sab and the coffee shop owner were also very nice, adorable supporting characters in the story
What I didn’t like:
- Didn’t care much for Momoku’s character. Was not drawn to her story or her personality.
- The second part of the book felt dragging
Overall Rating for Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the two things I listed above that I didn’t like. Still, it’s a cozy read, and it was a successful book. There’s even a sequel to it, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, which I intend to read next.
If you want to read this book, you can buy a copy at Fully Booked.