Author: Satoshi Yagisawa
The Japanese international bestselling novel “Days at the Morisaki Bookshop” by Satoshi Yagisawa is about a secondhand store that gets a second life.
Yagisawa’s debut novel, first published in 2009 then translated into English by Eric Ozawa in 2022, has been steadily climbing the bestseller lists, even in late 2024.
The award-winning book snagged the Chiyoda Literature Prize in Japan and is still frequently featured on “must-read” lists.
The story follows Takako, a melancholic 25-year-old woman, who has her once happy life uprooted after a sudden betrayal.
The self-described “non-reader” reluctantly seeks refuge at an unlikely place: her quirky uncle’s secondhand bookshop which has been in her family for three generations.
“From late summer to early spring the next year, I lived at the Morisaki Bookshop. I spent that period of my life in the spare room on the second floor of the store, trying to bury myself in books,” the novel starts.
“The cramped room barely got any light, and everything felt damp. It smelled constantly of musty old books.”
Within that time, Takako gradually reconnects with herself and discovers the healing power of books and community. But the story becomes more complex and layered as she moves out of the bookshop — but she always finds herself coming back.
Like the bookshop, the novel is crammed with treasures. And, like Takako, the book has become my recent refuge read.
Set in Tokyo’s Jimbocho, a district known as “Book Town” for its rich literary culture, the warm and introspective storytelling style kept me savoring each page.
Yagisawa’s minimalist yet evocative prose beautifully captures themes of loss, growth and the solace found in the written word. The universal message is about picking up the shattered pieces of your life, and how we should never judge a book by its cover.
The sentences are short but not terse. The imagery is vivid but not overdone. The conveyed emotion is relatable without being boring. The story is unapologetically poignant without being patronizing.
The 2024 sequel, “More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop,” revisits the store and its characters, further exploring Takako’s journey and the relationships and connections she forged; some tangible and others not.
