This is a really sweet, short read. It follows a housekeeper and her son with the story being written from the Housekeeper's perspective. The relationships between characters in this book were beautifully written. They never felt rushed - they were always organic, and shifted and changed with the story to make it truly feel like a brief window into someone's life. I think it is the relationships, especially between the three central characters, that really made this book for me.

The professor is a wonderful character. The affection between him and the others builds so beautifully as the layers of his personality are revealed. The way he (and the author through him) talk about the world of mathematics, and the Housekeeper's thoughts as she learns from him truly do lead you to see the beauty in the numbers described as 'peeking into God's notebook.'

Every character though, has their own layers. I loved this little snapshot of their lives but would equally love to learn more about every one of them. I have found out there is a film and will be tracking that down as soon as I can!

On a side note, I want to give some credit to the translator as well as the author. I speak some Japanese, so recognised some bits of this story that must have been really tricky to translate while retaining the spirit of the original text (palindromes prooobably dont translate directly!). I would love to peek at the Japanese version of this book to see how the translator has worked through that.