Japanese cozy fiction had a chokehold on me this year. What You are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama was one of the best books in the genre I read. Short interconnected stories about people overcoming their hurdles in life centered around a library, this one is a warm hug of a book.

The story starts with Tomoka and meanders through Urase, Natsumi, and Masao’s lives. While the library is central to their stories, it is not immediately evident how these stories are really all threads tangled together.

Sayuri Komachi, the librarian at the Hatori Community House likes to felt. When asked for book recommendations, this woman of few words offers the new library members a felted object as a bonus gift with the book lists. These lists also have bonus books recommended. The mysterious aura around her makes different people react differently to her, but at the end of the day, her recommendations are spot on — making what you are looking for is in the library a fact.

But again, it is not the books that hold all the answers but what the people do with the knowledge and the community they form in pursuit of that knowledge that is the highlight of the story.

This is a story of hopes and dreams, finding the purpose of life again and be accepting of an ordinary existence, a life of calm, self-assurance. All of the characters in this story come with their own quirks and unique speedbreakers that they are facing in life. In that, it is a champion for public libraries, a third place where you are not required to spend money.

In fact, no matter where you come from, your age, gender, or profession, you will find what you’re looking for at the library completely for free.

Hailing from a country where public libraries are a thing of the past and even back then, they weren’t completely free, this community they were able to build around books in this novel was truly heartwarming for to read about.

Now, I have to warn you, this one was not as short as the previous Japanese cozy fiction novels I have discussed. This one was a little over 200 pages and while still short enough, it’s a full-length novel. So if you’re thinking of picking this up, know that this will take some time. I had, honestly, found this one to be a slow read. Not because I wasn’t invested enough or the pace of the narrative was slow, but because the philosophy of life discussed in the book made me evaluate my own through its lens. So there was no other option but to slow down.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I won’t go into details of the individual stories but this one definitely deserves space on your immediate TBR. You need to read it specially if you are feeling lost in life, struggling with your reality and comparing yourself against other people and judging yourself by the yardstick of their successes. You might actually find what you’re looking for in this book.

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I am definitely on a binge of Japanese cozy fiction and Japanese translated books so expect to see more recommendations in the genre. Meanwhile, you can grab your copy of What You are Looking for is in the Library here.

Feel free to connect with me across social media to talk more about books, I would love to hear from you.

Until the next book.