A review by kxiong5
Child of Fortune by Yūko Tsushima

5.0

extraordinary. I liked this one even more than Territory of Light. It was one of those books that doesn’t have answers, is very happy to present a mystery to you and let you struggle with it as needed...and every thing in her world feels so real, like you’re in there with her, feeling the world press in from around you, everyone telling you what you have to want, flattening you into their understanding, caging you inside a self you will never be free from, if they’re with you...and for all of this, Koko *isn’t* a good person, isn’t pretending to be, isn’t pretending to know a damn thing. and for all the selfishness and confusion, she’s the realest narrator I’ve read in a long, long time.

I would learn Japanese just to read this book again in its original form. But the Harcourt translation—also brilliant. Capturing Yuko Tsushima’s writing itself—full of light and strangeness.