Description

Taro is divorced, unhappy in his job, and living in a half-empty building that is about to be torn down. One summer morning, he sees a fellow resident climbing over the wall to the next-door house. She says she is called Nishi, and invites herself inside. It emerges that Nishi’s fascination with this pale blue house began in her student days twenty years before, and came from a book of photos called “Spring Garden” from decades earlier.

As the summer draws to a close, Nishi, Taro and the new family that has moved into the old house come together and drift apart, leaving the reader with a sense of their whole life in just a few vivid snapshots.

Publisher Review

“Like a good meditation: quiet, surprising and deeply satisfying.”
-New York Times Book Review

“Atmospheric, meditative story of memory and loss in a gentrifying Tokyo neighborhood . . . An elegant story that is in many ways more reminiscent of Mishima and Akutagawa than many contemporary Japanese writers.”
-Kirkus Reviews

“Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki looks at loneliness and loss with uncommon detail and understated force . . . Shibasaki’s minimalist language comes across with poetic sensibility. Every word matters in this unflinching and quietly powerful novella . . . a brief, exquisitely crafted story of human connection in a contemporary, alienating society.”
-Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review

“Measured, understated and poetic at the right moment . . . making the novel difficult to put down.”
-Japan Society Journal (UK)

“[A] delicate, intimate novella.”
-The Lady magazine