“This place has atmosphere, different from a bookshop with just new books. In here you sense the weight of time, stretching way back to the past.”

I love libraries. I always have from the time my mom first took me as a very little girl. I would wander the stacks happily, choosing books, first from the children’s book section and then later as I got older, from the fiction section. In middle school, I was the library aide for one of my classes. In high school, I would often hide from the noise of the lunch room by eating in the library. As an adult, I worked in an elementary school library. Libraries are my happy place.

I was excited to read this book, because I do think that you can find a lot of what you are looking for in the library. I wasn’t sure what to expect though from this slim novel. Sometimes when a book is beloved by the public, I am not always a fan. This time however, I feel that all the appreciation and accolades are warranted. I absolutely loved it. Every story, every word. I loved Komachi and her enigmatic ways, her needle felting, her almost supernatural insightfulness.

“What are you looking for?”

Just this question alone could have multiple meanings, right, depending on what you are talking about or thinking about, or where you are. Are you looking for a book, a box of cereal, your glasses, or maybe an answer to that feeling within, a dream you have hidden, or an answer to worry or doubt. In the library one would be correct to guess that most likely, someone is looking for a book. But in Komachi’s library, they might get a little bit more. A bonus gift, or maybe something deeper.

There are five different stories wrapped within these pages, and each one is as good as the last. I did have favorites of course; I loved the stories of Natsumi, a former magazine editor. Former because after she had a baby, she returned to work to find her position had been changed, and while she loves her daughter she desperately misses her old life. Then there is Masao, who is at a completely different season in his life, a retiree from a lifelong career at one company, who now feels lost and like he has no friends, no purpose, no hobbies. I loved his story the very best, and I loved that this was the story the book ended on. I felt it was perfect as the first story, the story of Tomoka, is the story of a young woman just starting out in life. Perfect, full, circle.

This book is beautiful. I plan on buying own copy, but I found this one in the library.

“From now on, I intend to gather close all the things that are important to me. I will make my own anthology.”