Hanako Footman

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing not only her heritage but her growing desire for her best friend Fran.

Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Far from home and in an unfamiliar city, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher.

Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in the city's sex district. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . .

Shifting between three intertwining narratives, MONGREL reveals a tangled web of desire, isolation, belonging and ultimately, hope.

Mongrel

A book about belonging and the constant battle between simultaneously trying to reach out for and shed oneself of everything one inherits from their parents, friends and upbringing. A cryer. 

Stuart Frisby

So so good! Poetic, sad, visceral, luscious, women, feelings, grotesque, cultures, sex, identity, all of the good stuff. Regret reading over several weeks rather than in one to get the full immersion. Loved 

Amalie

a bit of a slow start for me but very moving when everything began to come together 

jacq bridge

He made her this way and yet he acted surprised when his monster did disgusting things…Alex must have forgotten that monsters do bad things. They eat men and children for breakfast. They grind their bones. 

there is something so violent in the transition from childhood to womanhood. our bodies no longer belong to us (did they ever?) our voices, no truly heard (were they ever?) our choices and desires, ignored.

womanhood comes with never-ending grief. we constantly mourn the girls we once were, and hate all the selves we seem not to become in any way: a daughter, a sister, a lover, a mother, a wife, a friend. we can grow into all of that—or nothing at all—and (still) it will never be enough. the expectations that surround us, and the pain that comes from them, threaten to consume us.

however, we still have bodies, minds, voices, choices, and desires. we want to want, and we want to take.

we find solace in each other because we meet ourselves when we choose to know another woman. when we love another woman. we have mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, wives. we are each other’s mirrors. we become together and we share this loneliness.

“He made her this way and yet he acted surprised when his monster did disgusting things…Alex must have forgotten that monsters do bad things. They eat men and children for breakfast. They grind their bones. Then they make their beds.”

there is something so violent in the transition from childhood to womanhood. our bodies no longer belong to us (did they ever?) our voices, no truly heard (were they ever?) our choices and desires, ignored.

womanhood comes with never-ending grief. we constantly mourn the girls we once were, and hate all the selves we seem not to become in any way: a daughter, a sister, a lover, a mother, a wife, a friend. we can grow into all of that—or nothing at all—and (still) it will never be enough. the expectations that surround us, and the pain that comes from them, threaten to consume us.

however, we still have bodies, minds, voices, choices, and desires. we want to want, and we want to take.

we find solace in each other because we meet ourselves when we choose to know another woman. when we love another woman. we have mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, wives. we are each other’s mirrors. we become together and we share this loneliness.

there is a life to be had because love is found in the looking.



Hannah Bateman

I really enjoyed this. A story of three women, initially separate, but you soon realise they're closely connected. Mei grows up "hafu" in England after losing her Japanese mother, Yuki comes to England to study music and falls for an older teacher, and Haruka grows up without a father (and eventually mother) in Niigata before working in seedy bars in Tokyo.

Something about the book made me think it would make a great movie, or maybe even better, TV series.

It's also the first novel I've read that features the language school I'm learning Japanese at 😁: "When she had taken a fresh notebook and a new pencil case to a language school in Holborn, and had learnt beginners Japanese with other students." 

Mario Menti 

I really enjoyed this. A story of three women, initially separate, but you soon realise they're closely connected. Mei grows up "hafu" in England after losing her Japanese mother, Yuki comes to England to study music and falls for an older teacher, and Haruka grows up without a father (and eventually mother) in Niigata before working in seedy bars in Tokyo.

Something about the book made me think it would make a great movie, or maybe even better, TV series.

It's also the first novel I've read that features the language school I'm learning Japanese at 😁: "When she had taken a fresh notebook and a new pencil case to a language school in Holborn, and had learnt beginners Japanese with other students." 

Mongrel

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