Hotel Iris – Yōko Ogawa

A very compelling novella from the immensely talented and prolific Yōko Ogawa, Hotel Iris is a novella written in 1996 and translated by Stephen Snyder in 2010. Written in Ogawa’s trademark simple, no frills style, the story is a fascinating read about a quiet 17-year-old Mari who works in her mother’s tumbledown mouldy hotel somewhere on the Japanese coast. The vagueness of the location is in fact the beginning of a seeming vagueness in terms of specifics in the books with the main characters, apart from Mari, being identified only by their professions or relationships – the Translator, the maid, mother and so on. In fact, apart from Mari the only other person named is the protagonist of the book the Translator is translating.

Mari’s story begins when the Translator is thrown out of her hotel while consorting with a prostitute. His voice awakens cravings in Mari and she follows him to find out that he is living alone on an island while translating a book. Very quickly the relationship between the two turns sexual and dark – a venture into BDSM territory that is stark, honest, abrupt and almost lyrical in its portrayal of young Mari’s desires.

Tommy Zou