A Hundred Years and a Day: 34 Stories
by Tomoka Shibasaki translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
ISBN 9798988688730
Published by Stone Bridge Press
This is a quiet yet lovely book. One the one hand, it can seem like nothing much is happening in these stories, but on the other, everything happens. There are no cinematic storylines here, but each story is the story of a life or lives--ordinary people moving through days, weeks, months, years. Time passes. There are connections and disconnections between people, people and objects, or people and places. Memories resurface. Things change. People change. Places change. Relationships change. As they do for all of us. The excellent writing is very matter-of-fact. I stopped at times to admire sentences and descriptions. For instance, one character is described as feeling like he was disconnected from his own life and leasing space in a different person's body. The stories are straightforward, but no less powerful for that.
I've not read any of Shibasaki's previous work, but I definitely want to now. In some ways, these stories reminded me a bit of the kinds of short stories Lydia Davis writes, so if you're a fan of hers, or of short stories in general, I can highly recommend this collection. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time and I'm delighted to have read it.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a DRC.
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