Brief Description
A Time Magazine Top 100 Best Book of the year
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS' AWARD
Already loved by thousands of readers, an inspirational tale of the love, comfort and growth you can find in the pages of a good book.
Full description
What are you looking for?
So asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi.
But she is no ordinary librarian.
Sensing exactly what someone is searching for in life, she provides just the book recommendation to help them find it.
We meet five visitors to the library, each at a different crossroads:
- The restless retail assistant eager to pick up new skills
- The mother faced with a demotion at work after maternity leave
- The conscientious accountant who yearns to open an antique store
- The gifted young manga artist in search of motivation
- The recently retired salaryman on a quest for newfound purpose
Can she help them find what they are looking for?
Which book will you recommend?
Review
"I ADORED this uplifting, hopeful novel ... A joy from start to finish, this book makes you feel anything is possible" - Wendy Holden, Daily Mail
"The novel is an undeniable page-turner, its mechanism energized by a simple question, posed again and again by the uncanny librarian, Mrs. Komachi. The question brings Michiko Aoyama's characters often to the brink of tears; and not only her characters, but this reader, too. It is the great question of the library, and of the bookstore, and maybe of life: What are you looking for?" - New York Times
"If what you are searching for is a believable take on contemporary life in Tokyo, seasoned with a dash of whimsy, you'll find your perfect match in this heartwarming novel" - Japan Times
Author biography
Michiko Aoyama was born in 1970 in Aichi Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. After university, she became a reporter for a Japanese newspaper based in Sydney before moving back to Tokyo to work as a magazine editor. What You are Looking for is in the Library was shortlisted for the Japan Booksellers' Award and became a Japanese bestseller. It is being translated into more than twenty languages. Aoyama lives in Yokohama, Japan.