Tsujimura is an award-winning novelist, she is best known for her mystery and children novels. She studied at Chiba University and won the Naoki Prize in 2012 for Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru (I Saw a Dream Without a Key), and in 2018 she won the Japan Booksellers' Award for her novel Kagami no Kojo (Lonely Castle in the Mirror).
I could have given this book 4 stars, the story is interesting to read, the characters are oaky and I can appreciate how the author trying to give us some moral lesson and message through the story. It's an enjoyable read, really. The sense of suspense in the story is well planned too, despite .
I also like the author's observation on the modern dating and match-making culture in the Japanese society as well.
However, I had read better books from this author, so I can't give it more stars.
Very good fiction book. Gives an insight of how Japanese view marriage and the pressure from the culture and families. The book is well written and you can feel the mixed feelings of woman portrayed in the book.
Rather than a fiction story it was more of a non fiction essay on love and marriage. I think a lot of the quotes are relatable to people in their 20s and up. The story moved a bit slow and then accelerated in the second part.
The story was really cleverly built - staring with what seemed like a murder mystery, soul searching on looking for a marriage partner, but underlying all that was a love story. With a lot of the current marriage age population relying on apps and other ways of match making to meet the one, I imagine the deep analysis and reflections on what one goes through in Kon- Katsu would have been really interesting.
I do wonder why people are finding difficulty in just finding a life partner in the usual social circle. Are we all too concerned about ourselves and how others sees us even with our choice of life partner? Have we lost interest in others? In this story as well, would he have tried so hard to understand her and learn about her past if it wasn’t for the disappearance? He may have never cared enough about her past, who she knew and what were her dreams etc.
meu primeiro contato com a Tsujimura Mizuki, gostei da escrita, mas não muito da história em si. o livro retrata bem a pressão da sociedade japonesa em relação ao casamento, no ponto de vista do homem e da mulher. essa pressão eu acho que não tem no Brasil, então algumas vezes pode parecer bizarro o desesperado das personagens.
This book impressed and made me to rethink about myself because the missing girl looks kinda similar to me. The story is not specially fun to read, rather boring at first, but it’ll be in my mind throughout my entire life.
i reallly liked how it got me thinking about marriage but also the cult of mom and daughter (family) relationships etc… HOWEVER did not like the ending like yes she has learned discovered a new better perspective on life BUT THAT IS A NARCISSISTIC BITCH WHO HAS A VICTIM COMPLEX????
"Pride and Prejudice" in Japan, where the society has a very strict "standard". And you realise you also measure people with those yardsticks. The reality of everyone who has ever been told "you should be married by now"
1⭐︎ for the point they wanted to make but 500 pages for this was too long. Maybe I was just impatient but I couldn’t handle it anymore that I started skimming the pages around page 150.