Nieske van der Heijde

A short and surprising novel. According to the text on the cover of my book “a shocker”. The book has characteristics of a crime novel. In the second chapter the reader gets to know that Lise, the main character will…

The sentence: “It was strange at once to be so familiar yet so separated.” sums up this novel venry well. A novel about family, art and language. A meditative novel without much of a story. The narrator alternates thoughts about the nature of life with memories, sparse conversations with her mother and phonecalls with her sister.

A beautiful, unassuming book. The narrator Kazu lives in a camp for the homeless near Ueno station. He tells the story of his life. Born in the same year as emperor Hirohito he lived a humble life paralel to that of the emperor.

Following two blogposts of literary British literary highlights from the 20th century. I like to pay attention to a mid 19th century successful crime novel. I read this book some years ago in December.