Woman on the Other Shore – Mitsuyo Kakuta

A novel about a seemingly mundane, unlikely friendship between two women, Woman on the Other Shore traces the journey of Sayoko and Aoi towards self-discovery. While it may sound like something that has been done a million times, Kakuta manages to infuse the tale with a certain timelessness and a mysterious otherness that can leave one quite intrigued.

Sayoko is a housewife in her mid-thirties with an indifferent husband, critical mother-in-law and unhappy daughter. Aoi, in what seems like a stark contrast, is free-spirited, independent and without the ties that family brings. Sayoko longing to go beyond what her life is now, starts working at Aoi’s travel agency and soon befriends the other woman. The novel however, operates in two timelines – the contemporary and one twenty years earlier in which it is revealed that Aoi underwent horrendous bullying at her school in Yokohama and eventually had to beg her parents to move. The scars left by this experience are lasting and show up once the mask she holds up is penetrated. Sayoko’s journey to finding a stronger her and Aoi’s revelations about her past and its relation to the present make for a compelling and ultimately rewarding read.

Tim Tingson