It looked like the sort of grand, Western-style mansions that had sprung up in certain areas of Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The sky-blue house was certainly an eye-catching structure. The novel begins with Taro finding Nishi apparently spying on the house next door, in which Mrs Saeki - the owner of the flats before she passed them on to her son - had lived. Only four of the eight units remain occupied when the story starts, and Taro finally gets to know some of his neighbors better - specifically Mrs Snake and the younger Dragon Woman, whose name he later learns is Nishi, and who is an illustrator and comic book artist

The flats don't have apartment numbers, but rather are identified by signs of the Chinese zodiac, and Taro impersonally thinks of the residents according to their respective signs - for example, he thinks of the woman who lives in the Snake flat as 'Mrs Snake'. The owners of the building have decided to tear it down, and so more and more of the residents have left as their leases expired or they were bought out Taro still has a year left on his lease, so he's biding his time for now. He is in his early thirties, and moved into a block of flats called View Palace Saeki III three years earlier, after he got divorced. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. 'This gentle story about people brought together by places is like a good meditation: quiet, surprising and deeply satisfying.' - Alison McCulloch, The New York Times Book Review.(.) Tomoka Shibasaki rightly won the Akutagawa Prize in 2014 for this sublime novella of dislocation and regret, and Polly Barton’s light, understated translation does it immense justice.' - Iain Maloney, The Japan Times ' Spring Garden is a master class in novel writing, with no wasted scenes or images, each development and recapitulation moving the story along.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the authorī : fine, low-key contemporary urban/society tale Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Tomoka shibasaki