Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

A Man by Keiichiro Hirano

Blurb from Goodreads

A man follows another man’s trail of lies in a compelling psychological story about the search for identity, by Japan’s award-winning literary sensation Keiichiro Hirano in his first novel to be translated into English.

Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido’s life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man—her recently deceased husband, Daisuké. Upon his death she discovered that he’d been living a lie. His name, his past, his entire identity belonged to someone else, a total stranger. The investigation draws Kido into two intriguing mysteries: finding out who Rié’s husband really was and discovering more about the man he pretended to be. Soon, with each new revelation, Kido will come to share the obsession with—and the lure of—erasing one life to create a new one.

In A Man, winner of Japan’s prestigious Yomiuri Prize for Literature, Keiichiro Hirano explores the search for identity, the ambiguity of memory, the legacies with which we live and die, and the reconciliation of who you hoped to be with who you’ve actually become.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! At least I hope that everyone had a happy Monday. I know. Most of us dread Mondays as it marks the start of the workweek. But that is the keyword I guess. Start. Mondays provide opportunities to start over again, and chances to be better. Yes, we feel sluggish at the start of the week but I hope that everything will start to look up as we go deeper into the week. I hope that everyone gets to accomplish the tasks that they set out to do. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. The pandemic remains a potent threat so I hope that everyone is still practicing the minimum health standards.

Kicking off another week of blogging is a new Goodreads Monday update. Goodreads Mondays have become part of a weekly ritual that allows me to peruse my (perpetually) growing reading list and reevaluate why these books are even part of my reading list. As I am currently in the midst of a Japanese literature month, I have been featuring a work of Japanese literature in, my weekly update. This week’s Goodreads Monday update will be no different. Oh my, I just realized that this will be my last Goodreads Monday for April. How time flies!. Anyway, for this week’s update, I am featuring yet another new-to-me writer in Keiichiro Hirano with his novel A Man.

It was through an online bookseller that I first encountered Hirano and A Man. I didn’t have any iota about what the book was about or who even Hirano was. (I’m apologizing in advance I guess). I would not have thought about him again had I not encountered his name on a list of recommended Japanese writers. A quick search about Hirano showed why. He published his first novel when he was only 23 years old; Carson McCullers also published her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, when she was also 23 years old. Meanwhile, I was busy doing overtime work when I was their age. Anyway, I am simply in awe of writing prodigies. Hirano even went on to win the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1999 for his debut novel, making him one of the youngest winners of the highly-coveted literary prize for budding writers.

His achievements are more than enough to convince me to give his prose a chance. After all, I want to explore as much Japanese literature as I can. A Man seems like a good springboard into my foray into the works of Hirano. How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!

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