It's hard for me to characterise what I felt reading this; it felt familiar yet something brand new.

It begins with Naoko a Japanese schoolgirl who starts out writing a diary about her great grandmother Jiko in admiration of her. Nao is a girl who is part of a family on hard times. I won't divulge the rest.

A writer, Ruth, a fictionalised version of the author, finds this diary and a series of letters wash up on the beach in her remote island in Canada, presumably getting there from Japan after the earthquake.

Embedded within this story are complex and intelligent observations of topics such as war, bullying (and bullying within soldier camps), time, and eastern philosophy. It resonates with a certain... honesty that really appealed to me. The writing is careful crafted to beautiful effect and it was a deeply melancholic book in some aspects. Ozeki really draws some characters into focus here, especially Haruki #1, a kamikaze pilot from the second world war. His thoughts were some of my favourite bits of the book.

I don't really know what else to say. Highly enjoyable.