Tokyo Ueno Station (National Book Award Winner) : A Novel (Hardcover)

from evano

Short, quiet, and deeply melancholy. Kazu is a poor man who worked all his life only to find himself in his final years without family or money or meaning or even a home. He's been buffeted by the disasters -- natural and man-made -- that have befallen Japan in his long lifetime: earthquakes an...

from quondame

The sad observations and reminisces of a lonely ghost who was a lonely man. Born the oldest of 8 children he still pretty much lived on his own since early adolescence, working away from his wife and two children. While he retains his internal connections to his remote home and family, he never e...

from sleahey

This spare and short novel tells the story of Kazu's life from his point of view after death. From the lyrical prose, we learn that he became homeless in Tokyo late in life, and suffers many regrets, chiefly that he left his young family to move to Tokyo to earn money. The death of his adult son,...

from texasstorm

A lonely, melancholy story that is mercifully short. The depictions of homelessness are well done.

from Perednia

A wistful novel about an observant life deemed unworthy by the one who lives it. The character is homeless, and the story shows how the homeless are perceived in a metropolitan park. The conversations of other people overheard are reminiscent of Wings of Desire.