El cielo es azul, la tierra blanca /The Briefcase aka Strange Weather in Tokyo (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 Limelite

Love in a Saki Haze I enjoyed reading this book largely due to the pervasive dreamy prose, atmosphere, and limited settings, primarily Tokyo bars. Still, the story hasn't stuck with me to the point that I hve any other lasting impressions of it. Like the novel, my memory of it is hazy. This is p...

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, ...