Thursday, January 31, 2019

FAREWELL MY ORANGE by Iwaki Kei





















🌺🌺🌺
Europa Editions
Personal Copy

Japanese Literature
Description

Winner of the Kenzaburō Ōe Prize




Two immigrants, Salimah and Sayuri, navigate isolation, a new language, and devastating loss on their way to a lifelong friendship. Far from her native country of Nigeria and now living as a single mother of two, Salimah works the night shift at a supermarket in small-town Australia. She is shy and barely speaks English, but pushes herself to sign up for an ESL class offered at the local university.
At the group’s first meeting, Salimah meets Sayuri, who has come to Australia from Japan with her husband, a resident research associate at the local college. Sayuri has put her own education on hold to take care of her infant daughter and she is plagued by worries about financial instabilities and her general precariousness.
When Sayuri’s daughter dies in daycare and one of Salimah’s boys leaves to live with his father, the two women look to one another for comfort and sustenance, as they slowly master their new language.
Written with great warmth, Farewell, My Orange offers optimism in the face of adversity. In the stories of Salimah and Sayuri, readers will find a touching portrait of our need for others and the certainty of change.

My View
It took me one third of the novel to unravel the names and why they did not readily make sense when applied to the characters in the story. Once I understood where the story was heading it was smooth going.
However it affected the joy of reading this story, hence the three stars.
A hint, this novel deals with a story within a story.

1 comment:

Andrew Blackman said...

Sounds interesting, Sylvie! But I can understand that being confused for a third of the novel would definitely mar the reading experience. Not sure if I'll try this, but it's always good to hear about new books, so thanks for highlighting it.