What You Are Looking For is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama

A small community library run by the eccentric Ms Komachi changes the lives of five people.

Five stories – five lives – all connected by one place, a community library in the Hatori ward of Tokyo. The library is run by Sayuri Komachi, a large, tall woman with perfect white skin. She sits under a sign that says “Reference” and stabs at felt pieces with a needle, making little toys. Her somewhat goofy assistant is Nozomi Morinaga, a young woman on her library training wheels. When patrons come to Ms Komachi's reference counter she asks, “What are you looking for?” She then prints out a list of suitable titles, but always adds in a book that seems completely off topic. It is these random books that take the library patrons on a new personal journey. 

Each of the five characters in What You Are Looking For is in the Library is going through some sort of personal problem. They are all searching for the right path in life, but find work and family getting in the way.

Twenty-one year old Tomoka feels at a loose end in her job as a sales assistant; Ryo, a thirty-five year old accountant, dreams of opening up his own antique store; Natsumi, forty years old, is a magazine editor finding it difficult to get the right work / life balance with her young daughter; Hiroya, a thirty year old, is unemployed and feeling guilty about still living at home; and lastly, there is sixty-five year old Masao, recently retired and finding himself with no social networks.

Through all of these individual stories, people gently find their way onto the right path. It's not necessarily an easy process, and they are all really just at the beginning of their journeys. Surely there will be other struggles to come. But the important thing for the book's characters is that they've had a change in mindset. They've learnt that life's circumstances won't allow them to completely live out their dreams, but with a few compromises, they can work towards honest self-fulfillment.

Japanese writer Michiko Aoyama has written a wonderfully therapeutic novel. It will strike a chord with many readers as it excavates our most private thoughts, fears and ambitions, treating them with compassion and understanding. A feel-good book, to be sure, but one that skilfully examines the human heart and our need for purpose and connection. 

What You Are Looking For is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama. Published by Doubleday. $32.99

OCT23