Heaven

Set in early 1990 in Japan. An unnamed 14-year-old boy with a lazy eye is brutally bullied in school by his classmates. He doesn’t resist, doesn’t let anyone know, and as a result, he suffers greatly. His only friend is Kojima, who understands him because classmates bully her, too. They only talk to each other when they are alone, never in front of other students.

This was quite difficult to read because there are very realistic descriptions of bullying, so the reader is often put in a pretty uncomfortable position. The novel was very good and very well written too. But if I'm honest, I expected a little more. I felt like something was missing. Perhaps that was the point, and you just have to make your own opinions. The author does not give you that.

Heaven was my first novel by Mieko Kawakami, and I intend to read her other novels. 

Goodreads

 

Details:

• author: Mieko Kawakami
  
• full title: Heaven
• country: Japan
  
• genre: literary fiction
• format/type: bookfiction
• topics: #comingofage, #bullying
  
• publisher: Europa Editions
  
• publish date:
  
• pages: 192
  
  

Literary Prizes:

• 本屋大賞 Nominee (2010),
• Murasaki Shikibu Bungaku-shō (2010), 
• International Booker Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2022)
  

My Rating of the Book:

• content: 💙💙💙💙

 

Listen, if there is a hell, we're in it. And if there's a heaven, we're already there. This is it.

 

Excerpt from the Book:

About the Author:

Mieko Kawakami (川上未映子, born in August 29, 1976) is a Japanese singer and writer from Osaka.

She was awarded the 138th Akutagawa Prize for promising new writers of serious fiction (2007) for her novel Chichi to Ran (乳と卵) (Breasts and Eggs).

Kawakami has released three albums and three singles as a singer.