The North Light, by Hideo Yokoyama

When a family goes missing from a house they had specially built, its architect becomes obsessed with their disappearance.

Minoru Aose is an architect, struggling with direction in his life. A recent economic downturn hit him hard, but he managed to find employment with an old friend, Akihiko Okajima. Okajima runs his own design company and it is while working for him that Aose designs the famous Y Residence, built near Mount Asama. It's a prize winning piece of architecture and has been profiled in industry magazines. The building was commissioned by Touta Yoshino and his family.

A mystery occurs when the architect Aose discovers the family hasn't moved in at all. The beautiful residence, with its stunning north lighting, has been left empty. Why? Aose starts to inquire as to what has happened to the family. On a visit to the house he discovers it has been broken into, but a beautiful chair by the German designer, Bruno Taut, has been left behind. What could it all mean? As Aose delves deeper into the mystery, more and more layers are revealed, including his own backstory, which involved a peripatetic childhood and the early loss of his father. The many strands of this story are finally woven together and the reader discovers how art and fate can intertwine.

Hideo Yokoyama's The North Light is an absorbing, slow moving novel of intrigue and fascination. There are many convoluted plot strands, but Yokoyama skillfully guides the reader through this dizzying labyrinth, making the journey a pleasure. The novel's main themes are about family and place, dislocation and loneliness. The novel also provides a meditation on art, and how it affects us emotionally, often working as a balm for the soul. The detailed descriptions of the Y Residence provides a calming, Zen-like experience in itself.
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Readers who enjoy immersive, slow-moving mysteries will get many hours of enjoyment out of The North Light. 
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The North Light, by Hideo Yokoyama. Published by Riverrun. $32.99

NOV23