A whimsical, charming novel about a mysterious library in Tokyo that opens after dark, following the employees who bond each night over special meals inspired by the books on the shelves
The Night Library on the outskirts of Tokyo isn't your ordinary library. It's only open from seven o'clock to midnight. It exclusively stores books by deceased authors, and none of them can be checked out -- instead, they're put on public display to be revered and celebrated by the library's visitors, akin to a book museum.
Otoha Higuchi, the newest employee, has been recruited to work at the library by the mysterious anonymous owner. There, Otoha meets the other staff, comprised of former librarians and booksellers who, like her, have been damaged in some way by the rocky publishing industry – yet none of them have ever given up on their dedication to books.
Night after night, Otoha bonds with her colleagues over meals in the library café, each of which are inspired by the literature on the shelves. When strange occurrences start happening around the library that may bring the threat of closure, it forces Otoha and the library staff to rethink their entire relationship with work and what they really want in life.
Dinner at the Night Library, Hika Harada
Can't remember quite how this novel piqued my interest, but I do love whimsical, gentle Japanese crime fiction and the library had a copy so...
First up, this was a fabulous read, full of whimsy and gentle humour, with a fantabulous setup: a library that only opens after dark, never allows patrons to check books out, and consists entirely of the collections of books that were once owned by now deceased Japanese authors.
The employees are also an eclectic set of people - former booksellers and librarians who have had rocky past careers, all of whom have come to work in the library after an approach from the mysterious and anonymous owner of this magnificent building. Most employees have also been given accommodation in a nearby set of small apartments, and it's between their home lives in such close proximity, and such an odd, enclosed working environment, where even the meals provided by a small onsite cafe and an eccentric chef, are related to well known books, that everyone is given a chance to come to terms with what they do, and who they are.
The Night Library is part museum, part collection library, with patrons who pay to come and sit with the books, a security guard, a manager, and a very different little set of employees, all of whom are not just grateful for the job, but come to be quite passionate, or they find a pathway to something else.
Whilst this is mostly a story about people, and life circumstances, there are also a couple of minor mysteries dotted throughout the story - the biggest of which is the identity of the anonymous, and seemingly infinitely wealthy owner of the complex, one of the smaller ones being the discovery of many books that don't belong to any of the collections, which causes great consternation. At the centre of the tale is a very new employee, Otoha Higuchi, and given the story is about her coming to terms with the job, and the environment, it's a journey of discovery for the character, and the reader. The moral of the tale appears to be that you must do what you love, and seek out the things that bring you joy, what you really want to do with your life, regardless of what other people think.
Or it could be something completely different - the joy of novels like this one is that you're free to immerse yourself in this strange little world and come out the other end thoroughly beguiled, or utterly confused.