“Days at the Morisaki Bookshop” follows the journey of Takako whose life shattered into pieces after her boyfriend announced that he was getting married to her colleague. She didn’t have the slightest clue, so talk about being blindsided. She fell into despair and retreated inside her apartment. Her uncle, Satoru invited her to stay with him at his second-hand bookstore in Jimbōchō, a district renowned for having the highest concentration of secondhand bookstores in the world.

This storyline should appeal to book lovers and indeed, I was captivated through the first part of this book. I was engrossed in learning about how Takako adapted to her new surroundings and gradually picked up the shattered pieces of her life. Initially viewing those dusty, yellowed books with disdain and her eccentric uncle with incredulity, she found herself leaning on them. As she read passages of prose that resembled her emotional state of affairs, she began to recover her strength. Eventually, she became inquisitive enough to explore Jimbocho and even visited a book festival with a lady staff from another shop whom she had bonded with. I flipped through the pages eagerly, savouring the cathartic effect the tranquil atmosphere of her new place had on her.

This book comprises two parts. I lost interest during Part 2, in which Takako was reunited with Momoko, Satoru’s wife. I put it aside and finished reading “Tales of the Cafe” first. Actually, Momoko’s inclusion was intriguing. She had abruptly left Satoru a few years ago - and suddenly moved back in with him, as if nothing weird had ever happened. But I found Momoko’s inclusion a bit jarring. I had been engrossed in Takako’s trajectory, and to suddenly make space in my mind for Momoko was a distraction to me. It was only when the due date was looming that I finally made time out to finish the entire story.

I did find Momoko’s reason for her disappearance fascinating. She had been grieving over her abortion for very long. So much to the extent that the lid that covered her facade popped out, with all her emotions spilling over. I appreciated this display of emotional depth and how all these emotions were entangled in a complex web.