Happy Wednesday, everyone! Woah! Just like that, we are already through the sixth month of the year. Hello July! I hope the year has been kind and great to everyone. I know life isn’t a walk in the park, but it is my fervent prayer that everyone’s year is going well. Regardless, I hope the rest of the workweek goes smoothly.

That said, the middle of the week also brings a fresh WWW Wednesday update. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. 

The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are quite simple: you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
www-wednesdays
What are you currently reading?

It’s already the middle of the week, which means we have only two more days until the weekend. I hope everyone makes it through the workweek. Anyway, my 2026 reading journey is going as planned. I spent the first two months of the year reading works by Latin American and Caribbean writers. I then followed it with a venture across European literature, a journey that lasted four months. I think this is the longest time I have spent immersed in European literature in a single year. I am just glad I was finally able to complete all the works by European writers in my reading challenges. Ironically, I first ventured into European literature because of these books, yet they were the last ones I read. In any case, I am glad I was finally able to conclude that journey. Nevertheless, it was a journey that I relished. Still, I am happy to finally begin a new literary adventure.

With July being my birth month, I have decided to venture into the works of Asian writers, with an emphasis on Japanese literature. I have actually run out of books by Japanese writers, at least those on my bookshelf. Still, there are a few waiting to be read. Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow, however, is not among them. I recently acquired a copy of the book, Kawakami’s latest novel to be translated into English. Originally published in 2023 as 黄色い家 (Kiiroi Ie), it is a book I have been looking forward to ever since I heard about its release. It is also the fourth novel by Kawakami that I have read. The novel is narrated by Hana Ito, who, at the beginning of the story, is forty years old. It is the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hana is working part-time at a deli in Tokyo. The story is set in motion when she comes across an online article that stops her in her tracks. It concerns a crime involving a woman named Kimiko Yoshikawa.

The article stirs long-buried emotions in Hana, naturally piquing the reader’s curiosity. Who is Kimiko? How does Hana know her? The answers, as always, lie in the past. From the present, Hana takes us back to Japan in the 1990s. She is fifteen years old and full of hope. However, little else is going well in her life. She lives in a small, run-down apartment with a mother who drifts in and out of both her home and her life. One day, Hana wakes up to find a strange woman lying beside her: Kimiko. It is a strange experience, to say the least. As I have only just started reading the novel, I do not have many impressions to share for now. However, the book is quintessential Kawakami. Hana shares many qualities with Kawakami’s other protagonists. Still, Sisters in Yellow feels distinct from her earlier works. I am looking forward to seeing how the novel develops. I will be sharing more of my thoughts on the book in this week’s First Impression Friday update.

What have you finished reading?

It took some time, but I was finally able to finish my venture into European literature. It is quite ironic that the very reasons I started this venture in the first place were also the reasons it ended up lasting longer than I had planned. I originally intended it to be just a two-month journey. However, I ended up doubling that plan as I explored the entire continent. Interestingly, the last two books I read were by British writers. In fact, my venture into European literature was dominated by French and British authors. The first of these two books is Mary Margaret “Mollie” Kaye’s The Far Pavilions. Actually, it was nearly a decade ago that I acquired a copy of the novel. I believe it was during a random visit to a book reseller that I came across it. Unfortunately, it suffered the same fate as many of my other books: gathering dust on my bookshelf. I had long intended to read it, but other books continually took precedence. There are simply too many good books out there and so little time! Anyway, it was for this reason that I included the book in my 2026 Beat the Backlist Challenge. I had finally run out of reasons not to read it.

Originally published in 1978, The Far Pavilions transports readers to nineteenth-century India, where we are introduced to Ashton Pelham-Martyn. He is the son of Hilary, a British botanist traveling through India. Ashton was born on the road in 1852, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Soon afterward, he was orphaned. His mother, Isabel, died of childbed fever shortly after his birth, while his father succumbed to cholera a few years later. His care was then entrusted to a Hindu ayah (wet nurse), Sita, who was supposed to take him to his maternal English relatives in the city of Mardan. However, during the Sepoy Uprising of 1857, British feringhis were being targeted and killed. This prompted Sita to adopt Ashton and take him with her in search of safety. Sita and Ash, now renamed Ashok, eventually found refuge in the kingdom of Gulkote. As Ashok’s surrogate mother, Sita raised him according to the traditions of India. Ashok later became a servant to Lalji, the young yuveraj (crown prince) of Gulkote. He also befriended Anjuli, a beautiful but neglected half-caste princess and the spirited daughter of the raja. When he was eleven, Ash uncovered a conspiracy against his master. With his own life threatened, Ash and Sita escaped the palace. During their flight, however, Sita passed away. Before her death, she revealed Ash’s true parentage and entrusted him with the letters and money his father had left in her care. Following Sita’s final instructions, Ash made his way to a British military post, where he was taken in by Major Sir Louis Cavagnari. He subsequently resumed his British identity and was sent to England for a formal education and military training. Still, he never forgot his Indian upbringing and longed to return to India. Eventually, at the age of nineteen, Ash returned to British India as an officer in the Corps of Guides, an elite military unit stationed on the North-West Frontier. His bravery and military prowess earned him the respect and admiration of his fellow officers.

Ash later went AWOL for a year to recover stolen rifles from Afghan tribesmen. Upon his return, instead of facing a court-martial, he was assigned to escort a royal wedding party across India. The party was from the former kingdom of Gulkote, now known as Karidkote. The princesses Ash was escorting were Anjuli and her sister, Shushila. After revealing himself to Anjuli as Ashok, Ash falls in love with her. However, he is unable to act on his feelings. First, Anjuli is already betrothed. Then, while the two are caught together in a dust storm, Anjuli confesses that she loves him. Even so, she refuses his pleas to run away with him out of duty to her sister, with whom she is to become a co-bride in an arranged marriage. Ash can only watch as Anjuli marries the Rana of Bhithor before returning to his military duties. Fate has many twists and turns, and Ash and Anjuli certainly experience the full spectrum of them.

The Far Pavilions is an evocative historical epic. It explores the Second Anglo-Afghan War as well as Great Britain’s role in the colonization of the Indian subcontinent. These historical contexts richly enhance the novel. At the same time, the story is also about Ashok/Ashton and his struggle for identity. Torn between his British heritage and his Indian upbringing, Ash embodies the complexities of belonging to two vastly different cultures. This cultural conflict is further reflected in the contrast between Victorian British values and the traditions of the princely Indian states. While the novel pays loving tribute to the Indian landscape, it also critiques rigid social hierarchies, including the caste system and the subjugation of women within a deeply patriarchal society. As much as it is a sweeping chronicle of history, The Far Pavilions is also a moving romance. Its characters grapple with the tension between personal desire and duty to their families and societies. It is these many facets that make The Far Pavilions a rich tapestry and a compelling read despite its daunting length.

My venture into European literature officially concluded with another book that had been left to gather dust on my bookshelf. Thomas Hardy first captured my interest when I was perusing must-read lists. Many of his works came highly recommended. They are considered classics, with some even included among the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The first of his novels that I read was Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891). During the pandemic, I read Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). Both were interesting reads in their own right. This made The Mayor of Casterbridge the third Hardy novel I have read. I acquired a copy of the novel in 2019, which is why I included it in my 2026 Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Originally published as The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character, the novel was first serialized weekly beginning in January 1886. The story commences on a September day in the 1820s, when the Henchard family arrives on foot at the village of Weydon-Priors. The patriarch, Michael, is seeking work as a hay-trusser. Along with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, the family stops for food at the furmity tent during the local fair. Michael is served alcohol by the furmity-woman. As he becomes increasingly drunk, he loudly confesses his unhappiness with his wife and laments his foolish decision to marry young. The story takes a sinister turn when a rash statement, intended as a half-joke, is taken seriously. He decides to auction off his wife and daughter to any man willing to buy them. A sailor named Richard Newson offers five guineas for Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. Believing it to be a binding agreement, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane leave with Newson. Drunk, Henchard falls asleep and wakes up regretting what he has done. He searches the town for his wife and daughter but is unable to find them. He then goes to a church and swears that he will not drink alcohol for twenty-one years, the same number of years he has been alive. After failing to locate his family, Henchard settles in the agricultural town of Casterbridge. Over the next eighteen years, he works relentlessly. His business acumen makes him a wealthy and respected corn merchant, and his newfound influence eventually leads to his election as the town’s mayor. Meanwhile, Newson is believed to have been lost at sea, leaving Susan and Elizabeth-Jane without support. Mother and daughter then set out in search of Henchard, although Elizabeth-Jane believes they are looking for a long-lost relative. They soon arrive in Casterbridge, where they are reunited with Michael. When Michael and Susan meet again, they plot their next move. Wishing to avoid scandal and to keep Elizabeth-Jane from learning the truth about their past, they agree that Michael will court and remarry Susan as though they had only recently met. Henchard then hires Donald Farfrae, a bright and affable young Scotsman, to manage his corn business. However, Farfrae’s competence soon outshines Henchard’s, leading to growing tensions between the two men. After Susan dies, Henchard learns that Elizabeth-Jane is actually Newson’s biological daughter and that his own child died in infancy. He grows distant toward the young woman and dismisses Farfrae from his employment. These events also mark the beginning of Henchard’s decline. How the mighty have fallen, as the adage goes.

The novel’s premise is quite compelling. I must say that each of the three Hardy novels I have read so far is distinct in its own way. They also share the quality of being deeply character-driven, and their protagonists are often eccentric, making them equally fascinating and compelling. The Mayor of Casterbridge is, unmistakably, about the trials and tribulations of Michael Henchard. From the outset, Henchard is a deeply flawed character. He is also his own worst enemy. His story demonstrates how the past continues to haunt the present. Following the drunken incident, he rebuilds his life and becomes successful. Still, fate can be cruel, and its twists are often unpredictable. The resurfacing of Henchard’s dark past gradually dismantles everything he has worked so hard to build. His downfall is further exacerbated by his pride, deception, and secrecy. Despite his many flaws, Henchard genuinely tries to redeem himself. Overall, The Mayor of Casterbridge is a compelling read from one of literature’s great masters.

What will you read next?