Book Review
Title: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Genre: Translation, Contemporary
Rating: 4.25 Stars
We are introduced to Takako and her boyfriend, Hideaki as she learns he is getting married and not to her. It turns out she has been his mistress this entire time and didn’t know. To make things worse, his fiancee is someone they both works with and he wants to continue the affair despite not realising that he has shattered Takako’s heart. When she begins suffering from severe depression from the breakup, Takako ends up leaving her job and becomes a recluse hiding from the world. That is until she receives a call from her uncle Satoru asking her to come back home.
Takako with nothing better to do and money running out decides to move back home and moves in above the Morisaki bookshop which has been in their family for generations. She ends up taking an offer to work there in the mornings for room and board which gets her away from her current situation and gives her something to do but her depression is so deep she spends a lot of time sleeping. Despite being surrounded by books on a dialy basis, Takako doesn’t really read anymore as she lost her love for it a long time ago due to the pressures of adulthood, this is in direct contrast to her uncle who acts more like a child than she does.
Satoru does try and find out what is going on but Takako doesn’t really respond to him. However, he does get her to accept going out for coffee with him where he reintroduces her to the town she has been away from for over a decade. It is here that Takako really ebgins to fall in love with the place and begins to open up more to her uncle. During this time she also rediscovers a love of reading she didn’t realise she had which pleases her uncle and myself as a reader. Takako truly begins to intergrate into the town, getting to know the poeple living there and finding some favourite spots of her own. She even ends up befriending a girl in the coffee shop, Tomo and a boy who has a crush on Tomo, Takano.
As the months begin to pass, Takako has reconnected with her uncle and fallen in lvoe with the town but a sudden message from Hideaki brings back all the emotions she has been running from. Satoru encourages her to confront him and explain all the ways she has been suffering because of him and they decide to go through with it. She not only outs him as a cheater in front of his soon to be wife, but gets her own feelings on the siutation out as well which was an incredibly emotional moment. It is here that Takako finds the drive to rebuild her life which means moving away once more which Satoru doesn’t want but Takako needs to do it.
Takako does end up visiting quite often and even begins a friendship with a man named Akira. They bond over their love of books and Takako begins falling for Akira but he is still pining over his ex-girlfriend which is a blow to Takako but she doesn’t fall apart like she did before. After this her aunt returns after up and leaving years before and drags Takako on a trip with her as she wants to find out where her aunt has been all this time. It turns out that she briefly worked at the inn they are staying in and to her surprise they are having a good time reconnecting, the same way she did with Satoru. It turns out that her aunt, Momoko is sick and that combined with the death of her and Satoru’s child made her leave. She is planning on leaving again and Takako encourages her uncle to not stand by and let it happen this time. Satoru ends up taking her advice and prevents Momoko from leaving allowing the couple to reconnect properly for the first time in years.
In the end, life continues on for Takako as she does end up dating Akira and finding a measure of happiness she hasn’t felt since she was a child not even with Hideaki. They end up being a better match than I could have imagined. The ending was the weakest point in my opinion but it doesn’t impact the story too greatly. I absolutely adored the themes and vibes of the novel and definitely want to visit this place in real life if I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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