This isn’t a bad book by any means, but as a reader that needs to feel connected and interested in the cast of characters in order to enjoy reading something, this book really didn’t itch that scratch of mine. The world Ogawa built is interesting (a little murky around the edges, hard to pinpoint — but I understand that that’s kind of the point), and I enjoyed the speculative approach to themes of memory, but the character voice bores me… terribly. At first I wanted to say that’s it’s because this is a translated work and sometimes things get lost in translation, but I read a lot of translated works and have felt connected to their characters with far stronger ties than those in this book. It’s a shame because the premise is so interesting but the characters are anything but.