Kirjanurkkaus

He had once been an expert in number theory at a university. He was sixty-four, but he looked older and somewhat haggard, as though he did not eat properly. He was barely more than five feet tall, and his back was so badly hunched that he seemed even shorter. The wrinkles on his bony neck looked a little grimy, and his wispy, snow-white hair fell in all directions, half-concealing his plump, Buddhalike ears. I think it was other book blogs that first got me interested in Yoko Ogawa's books - so interested that I actually went and ordered a couple, since none of her works have been translated into Finnish and are impossible to find in any Finnish bookshops or libraries. I read and enjoyed Ogawa's collection of novellas, The Diving Pool , several months ago and now I finished The Housekeeper and the Professor . The Professor is a brilliant ageing mathematician who lives alone. His problem is that he has lost his memory in a car accident back in 1975. His linear memory stops ...

Jun is walking out on the ten-meter board. He's wearing the rust-colored swimsuit I saw yesterday on the drying rack outside the window of his room. When he reaches the end of the board, he turns slowly; then, facing away from the water, he aligns his heels. Every muscle in his body is tensed, as if he were holding his breath. My previous experiences with Japanese short stories and novellas have mainly come from Haruki Murakami's fiction. Yoko Ogawa , another contemporary Japanese author, is a new acquaintance for me. The Diving Pool is a collection of three novellas, all set in Japan. In the title novella, a young girl, Aya, falls in love with her foster brother Jun as she spends her lonely afternoons watching him practice diving at a local pool. Her suppressed feelings force a darker side of her personality to the surface. In "Pregnancy Diary", a woman writes a diary about her sister's pregnancy and the strange effects that her sister's demands and cra...