Name: Four Seasons in Japan
Rating: 4.666666666666667 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9780857529343

Nick Bradley

Four Seasons in Japan

Flo is sick of Tokyo. She is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up, and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a drunken passenger on the Tokyo Subway. She starts to read... SOUND OF WATER Kyo has failed his university entrance exams, split up with his girlfriend and is sent by his busy mother to a cram school in Onomichi, a small coastal town where he will stay with his grandmother, Ayako. Ayako is a fierce and strict old lady, who runs a coffee shop in town, is missing fingers, and won't talk about the past, or particularly what Kyo really wants to know: who his father was, and why he died by suicide when Kyo was only two. Following a year in Kyo and Ayako's lives, through the changing seasons in rural Japan, Sound of Water is an intergenerational story of family, relationships, creativity and how we overcome and live with failure in life. ...quickly, Flo realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its illusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. Her journey is just beginning.

The new novel from the author of The Cat and The City

A beautiful book about life, really. About art, creativity, societal expectations, doubt and how to keep going. 

Giulia

Unsurprisingly, I adored this. Japanese language, translation, cats... it covers a lot of what I love. A beautiful story with some very memorable characters.

Four Seasons in Japan

Reviews

Highlights