A review by jess_mango
Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto

4.0

First off, thank you to the publisher for the Bespoke Editions audiobook! The dual narrators did an excellent job bringing the characters to life.

Chorus of Mushrooms was Japanese-Canadian author Hiromi Goto's first novel and was originally published in the 1994 to critical acclaim. It won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in the Caribbean and Canadian Region.

This novel tells the story of 3 generations of Japanese women living in Alberta, Canada. The story is a feminist tale that takes a thoughtful look at the experiences of Asian-Canadians. The narration jumps between the grandmother and the granddaughter. After the grandmother leaves her daughter slips into a depression and the daughter tries to comfort her. The granddaughter ends up on a personal journey to figure out more about her family. There are definite elements of magical realism in this novel, which I loved.

This book gave a good glimpse at what it is like to live or grow up as an "other" in a mostly white, small town in Canada. There are scenes where the characters talk about how it is to be instantly judged based on the color of your hair or the shape of your eyes.

This was the first book I've read by Hiromi Goto but I definitely plan to pick up more.