Random Things Tours: Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley

 

Although my time spent in Japan meant mostly work, very hard work, I also had the chance to travel around the country, at least once to Tokyo. Big cities are fascinating, of course, but living there, life may be unbearable: human relationships are hard to make and maintain, the daily expenses are hard to cover therefore more work is required to pay the basic costs of life.

Flo, the American translator assigned the role of the main character in Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley is going through a complicated existential crisis. Her relationships is stuck, her life does not make too much sense and she is slowly developing a deep hate towards the city. It´s how you feel when you do not find your place any more.

Her life is about to change as she is randomly finding a book in the subway that she is decided to translate. An old book about an old lady from a small town, sharing her grief and determination to dedicate her life to her grandson, while maintaining a small coffee place. This literary meeting between a translator and a long forgotten book will change her, showing her a direction and sense of life she may have forgotten.

I haven´t read in a long time a story within a story kind of book. Books do have power and have the strength to change lives and everything happening in this story, although wrapped in the veil of fantasy, makes sense. I also appreciate that the main character is a translator, and her relationship with written words she is translating is portrayed as a transforming experience. Translators are rarely featured as book characters, which adds just a new merit to the book.

Four Seasons in Japan is a recommended read to anyone looking to find beauty in one of the places where most probably it is always easy to find: in the pages of a book. Days after reading it I still feel its touch of beauty in my life.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own