From the Bookshelf of Bookmarks Subscribers …

The Housekeeper and the Professor

Yōko Ogawa

Discussion: May/June 2009

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 3 topics — 27 comments total

May/June 2009

Little Bee - Chris Cleave
By Betsy · 14 posts · 53 views

last updated Jun 03, 2010 01:21PM

Housekeeper and the Professor
By deleted member · 5 posts · 28 views

last updated Jan 24, 2010 07:53AM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jan 12, 2021 Misha rated it really liked it

Shelves: purchased-2019, literary-fiction, speak-memory, contemporary, award-other, japan

“Are all things quantifiable, and all numbers fraught with poetic possibility?”

This was perhaps one of the most moving books I have read recently.

Our narrator, the housekeeper, a young single mother, is appointed to keep house for an eccentric and elderly Professor of Mathematics. However, the Professor has a short-term memory that lasts only eighty minutes. Thus, every morning, the housekeeper and the professor must 'meet' again and then again. Over time, the professional relationship turns int ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 24, 2010 Marci rated it it was amazing

This is a lovely book easily read in a day(or less). The book takes place in Japan. Intermingling the lives os a housekeeper, a mathmatic professor with a brain injury that has destroyed his short term memory yet let his cognitive abilites as well as his long teerm memory intact. The housekeeper's young son brings a new dimension to the professor's life. Very well written. Seems simple yet leaves you thinking about the effect we can have on other peoples lives. ...more

1 like · Like · see review