Name: Manazuru
Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9781582436005

Michael Emmerich

Hiromi Kawakami

Kei, who was left alone to raise her daughter after her husband disappeared twelve years ago, finds herself drawn to the seaside town of Manazuru, a place where she tries to unlock memories from her past.

A Novel

Manazuru

Une femme, sa fille, son amant... et son mari disparu. Non pas défunt, mais mystérieusement évanoui dans la nature. Le seul indice qu'il a laissé est le mot Manazuru écrit dans son journal. Ce qui amène sa femme à se rendre régulièrement dans la station balnéaire du même nom. Comme toujours dans les romans de Kawakami, le temps se tisse lentement et le secret des coeurs se donne à lire dans les gestes, les étreintes éphémères, la délicatesse des sensations. Mais dans Manazuru plus que dans les autres, la présence d'un monde invisible imprègne le quotidien et bouleverse la géographie sentimentale des êtres. Là-bas, au bord de la mer, il y a le bruit de la pluie dans le ciel immense, l'éblouissement d'étincelles d'un incendie, l'envol de hérons blancs sur des maisons en ruine : un instant de lumière à saisir, peut-être, entre apparition et disparition, souvenir et oubli, mystère de l'absence et appel de la vie.

thya

i really really really loved this book omg &lt;3333

Jeremy Wang

honestly struggled a bit with this one. kawakami's signature wandering style doesn't work quite as well in a longform novel as it does in her short stories, although i will say that she continues to enchant with a touch for surprising and symbolic magical realism. 

i went into this expecting something similar to strange weather in tokyo, but manazuru genuinely had no plot direction whatsoever. it works in a meta sort of way, but i'm not sure that i liked the feeling of floating around in mist. there were moments when some beautiful images faded in and out of the fog, but overall the effect was fairly disconcerting and made for a difficult read.

charisa

kawakami at her most elegiac (and possibly, her most plotless lol). still, i enjoyed this and sped through it despite its crawling pace! there’s a lot covered here: need/obsession, loneliness, relational dynamics (romantic as well as familial), growing pains, learning to accept loss. there’s a kind of tenebrous mood that weaves everything together. would recommend for anyone feeling a little lost (but not toooooo in the depths lmao).

Manazuru A Novel

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