Three women - Mei, Yuki and Haruka. All are navigating the temptations and hardships of life, dreaming and mourning. Belonging to places they are far away from. The pathways of their lives may meet, but in the end each is left with their own past and uncertainties.
Mongrel, the debut novel by British-Japanese author and actress Hanako Footman is a lyrical story, narrated with elegance and beauty. Each of the three stories, women stories, stories of young women lost in the networks of life and modernity, develop slowly, leaving the characters enough space to breath.
It is a captivating experience to get so close to someone else´s life, but this is how I felt most of the time while reading this book. There are three different experiences, three destinies, unique yet inter-connected. They long for love, community and mourn - at least two of them - the death of their mothers. As Asian women, they do experience the weight of their perception and sometimes the fake reflection into the eyes of the others. From London to Tokyo and Surrey, they do share the interconnectivity of our modern lives, but the ways in which they feel and position themselves as humans may be part of the eternal repertoire of humanity.
It is normal that debut novels are sometimes far from being perfect, both in terms of writing and story construction. Mongrel though does offer a refined story and a carefully styled poetic prose. Which makes me very curious to read her next writings.
A special note of appreciation for the beautiful cover, a story in (fragmented) images of the novel
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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