Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it.
As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko's past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale. All the Lovers in the Night is acute and insightful, entertaining and engaging; it will make readers laugh, and it will make them cry, but it will also remind them, as only the best books do, that sometimes the pain is worth it.
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Why does the night have to be so beautiful?
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(@EuropaEditions, 12 May 2022, ebook, 219 pages, #ARC from the publisher)
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This is a new author for me. I chose to read All the Lovers in the Night because I tend to really enjoy Japanese literature, I loved the title, the book cover and the blurb made it sound like a good read. I really enjoyed this book. The story is very much focused through Fuyuko Irie and we get real insight into her; what makes her tick, her fears etc. She's a great character, so well written she leaps off the page. In some ways nothing much happens in the book and there is no great, complex plot but in other aspects the book is crammed with insight into Fuyuko Irie and her world. This is well-written and compelling. I'd recommend it.
