The Briefcase (Paperback)

from andrewreads

This was a surprise. I picked it up at the library because I thought the cover was pretty and I'm a sucker for Japanese authors. Using sparse prose, Kawakami explores several different themes including the differences between contentment and happiness, the effects of prolonged nostalgia/lonelines...

from Yuki_Onna

A quiet (like much Japanese literature, it seems... They often tell their stories in a quiet, calm, unagitated way...) down-to-earth love story between an elderly school teacher and one of his former students. Very lovely, tender and highly recommendable story of love and life today (as long as y...

from MandaTheStrange

A sad but exquisitely beautiful read. Dream like, poetic and one that will certainly stay with me. It also made me want to eat delicious Japanese food and drink sake.

from jnwelch

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami is a quiet, and quietly affecting story of a late thirties woman in Tokyo slowly developing a relationship with a now-elderly man who taught her in high school. Its dreamlike quality made me think of [Murakami], but her book has quite a different tone, ...

from drachenbraut23

Tsukiko is an office worker in her early 40's lonely, living alone, and can't really see what the purpose of her life is. One night she meets her former Japanese teacher which she refers to as 'Sensei' as she can't remember his true name. Sensei is retired and more than 30 years her senior. "Taki...