A review by mat_tobin
Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba
5.0
This was a beautiful ghost story. Translated from Japanese by Avery Fischer Udagawa, I bought it after seeing it reviewed on a website. Kashiwaba has been a muse for director, Hayao Miyazaki and the themes and style of the book made that connection abundantly clear. Kashiwaba has a very clever way of seeing the world through the eyes of a child in the same way that Kate Di Camillo (and Miyazaki) does.
It would be silly to summarise the story as to do so would give too much away. Needless to say that this is a story with deep moral questions about life and justice and love and hope; all woven in a rich tapestry of a story. I was worried that the ending would come to too abrupt an ending but it absolutely did not.
It would be silly to summarise the story as to do so would give too much away. Needless to say that this is a story with deep moral questions about life and justice and love and hope; all woven in a rich tapestry of a story. I was worried that the ending would come to too abrupt an ending but it absolutely did not.