Four Seasons In Japan
By Nick Bradley

As we consume more Japanese inspired food, watch more films from there, even buy their vehicles, as the consumption fluctuates, Japanese culture seems to be on the rise again in popularity and now books are again also on the rise. So, now’s the perfect time to really enter the country and take a look at this immersive literary book, Four Seasons In Japan. Thanks to Penguin and Random T. Tours, I am on the blog tour for. Check out the gorgeous sunny cover, the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

From the author of The Cat and The City – ‘vibrant and accomplished’ David Mitchell – a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick.

Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she’s in a relationship that’s run its course. That’s until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life…

It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo. Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair’s burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning.

From the author of The Cat and The City, Four Seasons in Japan is a gorgeously crafted book-within-a-book about literature, purpose and what it is to belong.

Review

Enter Japan and be whipped up in to its four seasons, of which the sections are divided up into. Nestled amongst, what is an emotive story, are also some Japanese pictures in the book too, some that also help section each part off, but others that are photographs of real places and people, which are fascinating.

Train stations, subways etc can be interesting places, if you let curiosity flow in. Flo did and discovered, what becomes quite a journey when she discovers a book, left by a fellow passenger. It looks mysterious and her innate fascination to discover more is piqued. Four Seasons in Japan, cleverly transpires to be a book within a book as we enter this journey of discovery with Flo. What she finds is more about Japanese culture, including an all important cat, a story about tragedy, a sense of community, all of which become significant as Flo discovers things in common with her own life.

The book intertwines between the protagonists of the story Flo is translating and her own life as it layers up. The hunt is on for the author of this mysterious book. The style of writing feels different from other books and, authentically, readers see a bit of what Flo sees as she translates, so she sees the Japanese words and characters in Japanese calligraphy, which is translated. At the back of the book, there are Japanese proverbs, which are familiar and are set alongside the English equivalent. By the end it feels a bit like you’re ready to embark on a Japanese adventure. Four Seasons in Japan truly gives one of the most immersive experiences of Japan in a book.

A pic of my cat approving of Four Seasons In Japan