Ratings10
Average rating3.2
The story of an enigmatic man through the voices of ten remarkable women who have loved him at one point in their lives. Each woman has succumbed, even if only for an hour, to that seductive, imprudent, and furtively feline man who drifted so naturally into their lives. Still clinging to the vivid memory of his warm breath and his indecipherable sentences, ten women tell their stories as they attempt to recreate the image of the unfathomable Nishino. Like a modern Decameron, this humorous, sensual, and touching novel by one of Japan’s best-selling and most beloved writers is a powerful and embracing portrait of the human comedy in ten voices. Driven by desires that are at once unique and common, the women in this book are modern, familiar to us, and still mysterious. A little like Nishino himself . . . Winner 2020 Pen Translation Prize Praise for The Ten Loves of Nishino “If you like Haruki Murakami and Yoko Ogawa, it’s a safe bet that you’ll love The Ten Loves of Nishino.” —DozoDomo (France) “Agile, inventive fiction.” —Booklist “An intriguing portrayal of romantic attachment.” —The New Yorker “The women in this collection are vibrant, lusty, and clearly the agents of their own love lives . . . . Kawakami's novel treats its feminist themes with a light hand but still slyly lands its points.” —Kirkus Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
undoubtedly a waste of time.
what was the point? nishino SUCKS. he dates two women at once, always going between relationships like a monkey on tree branches and somehow NEVER getting attached. i didn't want to read 200 pages of women getting treated like crap for a good for nothing guy!!
also, what was the allure? can someone mcfreakin explain to me? did he shit gold or something?
I found this book captivating and really difficult to describe. I can see how it would be off putting, but I didn't really see it as a book about Nishino, so much as a book about women reckoning with their relationships with a significant romance in their life — it just so happens that all of the women were reflecting on the same romance.
Most of the characters were unlikable in some respects and made decisions that I found difficult to understand — but who hasn't watched a friend in love make inexplicable choices? I've thought about this book quite a lot since I finished it and I expect it'll stick with me for some time.