Book Review: All the Lovers in the Night
Written by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
This is the book that I started reading last year (2023) and finished this year. This book tells the story of Fuyuko Irie, a freelance editor in her thirties, who lives alone, and except for her work-friend Hijiri, does not have any meaningful human connections. It is after meeting a man named Mitsutka that something changes in her.
The story is a reflective book about the protagonist who feels like an introvert. The writer beautifully writes about the protagonist’s world and takes the readers into her mind and like an mirror, we see her reflect the views and stories of people around her.
It is a character-driven story and is reflective and poignant about the protagonist’s life. It felt a little slow-paced, and I think it could be because of the story being not plot-oriented.
What I liked about the story is the quality of the prose being dream-like. People who like knowing and reading about what goes inside the mind of people would like this. I do not have a good judgement of a good translation, but I feel that this book has been translated well.