If you've ever seen my shelves, you'll know that I own every book of Banana Yoshimoto's that has been translated into German to date. I connect intense personal memories to some of them (namely Kitchen and Federkleid), others I hold fondly in memory (Goodbye Tsugumi and Der See/The Lake) or have forgotten the specific plots of. Lebensgeister was the last book I purchased and the circumstances of purchase kept me from wanting to read it for the past year, so of course I was hoping that by the time I finally got around to picking it up, I'd be overjoyed and flung right back into the Yoshimoto-headspace.

Lebensgeister reads like a standard Yoshimoto - you have grief, the afterlife, strange flatshares and bars, food and drink which bring the characters together. Nonetheless, I feel like a lot of her previous stories brought something new to the table, something which cannot be said about this story. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; if you want to read a Banana Yoshimoto book for the calmness, serenity and introspection that greet you once you start reading, this book is as good a fit as any.

One more note: I find that the German editions really shine or suffer depending on who is translating them. So perhaps some of my issues stem from this as well, though I thoroughly enjoyed Thomas Eggenberg's translation Federkleid and The Lake.