A Man | 
pickThis book is so hard to describe without giving away the basic premise. It's written by the author of At the End of the Matinee and has the same crisp style of writing that sometimes goes deep into some detail that's clearly important to the author. It's a book about our identities and our families, love over the years, and who we are amid all that. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
pickI really enjoyed this #Roll100 pick!
When Rie‘s husband dies, she discovers that he may not have been who she thought he was. She hires a lawyer named Kido to investigate the identity of her husband.
This was part detective story, part philosophical tangents about why someone would want to change their identity. I wouldn‘t say it was a happy book, and I wouldn‘t say the ending was 100% satisfying, but I still enjoyed every word!
P 100>> “Kido saw his life as composed of several stages linked together by a shared name, with himself as their culmination. […] Of course there might have been other paths he could have taken and therefore other people he might have been. […] The problem now was not who he was in the present but who he‘d been in the past, and the solution he sought was no longer supposed to help him live but to help him figure out what sort of person to die as.”
pickWow, I really loved this book even if it felt a bit frayed at the edges—due in part maybe to the translation? Feels like early Paul Auster, the thoughtful detective story, the slippery identities. A READER‘s mystery, what would it be like to become someone else? Hinges on Japanese family registries and purchasing new paperwork, new to me. A bit wobbly at times, but keen observations on family, guilt, escape, reinvention, selfhood. Trans. 2020.
pickI loved this book. A middle-aged Japanese lawyer is called to assist his friend when she discovers a bizarre situation regarding her husband. We then follow him through the continually twisting and obsessional path he follows in uncovering the truth about this other man (and simultaneously about himself). Part mystery, part reflection on identity. I am disappointed this is the only one of this author's books translated into English!
1️⃣ A Man by Keiichiro Hirano
2️⃣ Not really
3️⃣ Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison
#SundayFunDay @ozma.of.oz
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From the Publisher:
“Japan‘s award-winning literary sensation Keiichiro Hirano in his first novel to be translated into English. Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido‘s life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man—her recently deceased husband, Daisuké.
pickAn interesting insight into an aspect of Japan. A woman is happily married to a dutiful loving husband. When her husband is accidentally killed she finds out that he was not who he had claimed to be. In desperation to find the truth she engages a lawyer to investigate. If written by an American this would be a murder mystery, but by a Japanese author, this is an investigation into family and identity and the need to reinvent yourself.
#ReadYourSign Virgo ruling number 6 in title, publication date or page totals.
My book club‘s pick this month! A husband had lived by a different name and identity. Who is this other person he is masking under? How much of ourselves is lost in being someone else?
