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Spring Garden
Spring Garden | Tomoka Shibasaki
4 posts | 4 read | 6 to read
Winner of the Akutagawa Prize, a sharp, photo-realistic novella of memory and thwarted hope 'He'd come to realise that it was a mistake to grind up his father's remains with such a thing. The mortar was lined with narrow grooves, a little too perfect for ashes to get stuck in.' Divorced and cut off from his family, Taro lives alone in one of the few occupied apartments in his block, a block that is to be torn down as soon as the remaining tenants leave. Since the death of his father, Taro keeps to himself, but is soon drawn into an unusual relationship with the woman upstairs, Nishi, as she passes on the strange tale of the sky-blue house next door. First discovered by Nishi in the little-known photo-book 'Spring Garden', the sky-blue house soon becomes a focus for both Nishi and Taro: of what is lost, of what has been destroyed, and of what hope may yet lie in the future for both of them, if only they can seize it. Tomoka Shibasaki was born in 1973 in Osaka and began writing fiction while still in high school. After graduating from university, she took an office job but continued writing, and was shortlisted for the Bungei Prize in 1998. Her first book, A Day on the Planet, was turned into a hit movie, and Spring Garden won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2014.
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review
rachaich
Spring Garden | Tomoka Shibasaki
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Mehso-so

Perfectly sized to read on the journey to and from London.
Nice story with a few unexpected things thrown in!

review
lauraisntwilder
Spring Garden | Tomoka Shibasaki
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Pickpick

I loved getting caught up in the details with Nishi and Taro as they wondered and speculated about the interior of the large house next to their apartment block. So many interlaced thoughts about what makes a home, how long things last, and what sort of efforts life requires.

5 likes1 stack add
quote
Lexica10
Spring Garden | Tomoka Shibasaki
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As his mind made these connections, he had a visceral realization that the world as it existed in his head and the ground that he walked on every day were actually the same place.

1 like1 stack add
blurb
Annashep
Spring Garden | Tomoka Shibasaki
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Spring Garden was one of the books in my book haul from a good wander around this great second hand book heaven in Northumberland ... Barter Books 📚

Kristelh What a nice used book store. I would love to spend time there. 6y
Annashep It is lovely, it‘s in the old train station building so also has a nice cafe in what was the old waiting rooms .... 😊😊 6y
12 likes2 comments