The start of this novel is slightly disorientating. We are first introduced to Flo in Tokyo who’s in denial about the fact that she’s breaking up with her girlfriend. The story then shifts to being a tale about Kyo and his grandmother Ayako in a small Japanese seaside town called Onomichi, about an hour by train from Hiroshima. This is the real story and the details about Flo are extraneous wrapper (she’s a translator who comes across a book which narrates the story of Kyo and Ayako). To be honest, I’d scrap all the Flo framing and just have the Kyo/Ayako story as it’s strong enough on its own.

Kyo is ostensibly in Onomichi to resist his university entrance exams by attending a cram school. However, it really turns out that, by spending time with his grandmother and both of them working through traumas, they both grow much stronger and forge a deep, caring relationship despite the generational divide. By the end, Kyo has realised he can no longer live the life his mother would like him to take as he’s passionate about another career and another location instead.

Read for the Kyo/Ayako story and skip the rest (c. 15% of the book). I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely adored The Cat and the City when I read it last year so couldn’t wait to get my hands on Nick Bradley’s second book, Four Seasons in Japan.

This is a book within a book with one narrative following Flo, a literary translator who discovers a book called Sound of Water she cannot resist, and then also the narrative of the characters of Sound of Water.

I felt completely transported to Japan when reading this and I found it so calming to read 😌 The relationships between the Sound of Water characters were just stunning and so well developed with Kyo and his grandmother’s being so beautiful and raw.

This story hit some really big emotional factors and I found myself really caring for the characters. Whilst the culture of the book is so far removed from my own, so much of the story was relatable and I think it would be for so many people around the world.

I found Flo’s story took me a little longer to get in to but by the halfway mark I was fully invested and was wishing for her to discover the true identity of Hibiki.

I really loved this book and cannot wait to read any future books by the author 🥰

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

"Four Seasons in Japan" is a memoir-stylised novel, in which two realms intertwine. One is of Flo, young American woman who works as a literature translator, the other of Kyo and Ayako-grandson and grandmother duo-who are the characters in the Japanese novel that Flo wants to translate to English. Both storylines have their unique atmospheres and are organised around particular seasons.

The elements of translator's struggles, small-town living, intergenerational traumas and what it means for one to follow their dreams make up an enjoyable and captivating read.

It is rare to have story inside the story type of book. Luckily Four Seasons in Japan is one of them. This book was offered to me as perfect choice for readers who love cats appeared at the story.

Four Seasons in Japan was offered two stories. One about a translator Flo and other about Kyo, the young man as the manuscript that Flo'stranslating. Both struggles to finding them self and their place they are belong in the world. The stories going simultaneously during four seasons. Honestly this gentle, beautiful stories dont offer the most earth shattering plots or easiest messages to understand. Japanesse or Asian literature mostly it come with layers and hidden meanings. I really love the glimpse of Japanaesse cultures, events, words and philosophy I found at here.

Thank you Transworld Publisher from Random House UK and Netgalley for provided my copy. My thoughts and opinions always become my own.

I didn't read Nick Bradley's first novel but will look for it after enjoying this book. It is two stories, both of which take place over a year - and four seasons, in Japan.

One thread is about Flo, an American living in Japan who is working as a translator but feels lost as her lover has gone to the US and she isn't having much success in her working life. The second thread focusses on Kyo, a young man who is also lost after failing the exams to get into med school, and who has gone to live with his grandmother, Ayako, to attend a crammer for a year to retake the exams. They share unspoken grief as Ayako's son, Kyo's father, committed suicide some years before.

The relationship between grandmother and grandson is particularly well described as they are initially frosty and distant and gradually become very close.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

This book is about pain and loss and finding out where you belong. It's about how people from different worlds can connect over common experiences anf feelings.
The writing is so soft and smooth. I really like it. It feels peaceful.
There's two timelines: the one with Flo, the American translator living in Japan, and the one with Ayako and Kyo, the main characters of the book Flo is translating.
Flo just went through a tough break-up and she doesn't see the value in life anymore. I thinks she's a very relatable character. I understand what it's like to loose faith in yourself and to not know what to do, and it can be quite strenuous. She's also unable to open up about her feelings, but with time, she starts to get better.
Kyo's father commited suicide when he was young. This affects the story deeply, since Kyo wants to know more about him and Ayako wants to get things right and not make the same mistakes with Kyo that she made with his father. So Kyo uses a toy Frog that was sculpted by his dad as his father figure and it us very important in the story.
Kyo also feels like a failure since he didn't enter med school, despite not being sure what he wants to do in life. The pressure put on to have certain jobs is insane. Of course paying the bills is important, but you should also like what you do.
I relate a lot to Kyo and a little to Flo - life is also not working out that well for me, so I understand their pains and their paths. Some seems hit very deep.
Kyo's mother works very hard, but because of that, she misses almost every single occasion of his life. This causes him to not have a great relationship with her and to not want ot follow her footsteps.
Ayako also has her own personal trauma with the mountain, who took her fingers and her husband. She ends up sort of projecting her trauma on her grandson, which is a very interesting plot point. She sometimes goes way too hard on him, but always apologises in her own way.
This book also focuses a lot on cats, mainly Coltrane, a stray cat that helps Ayako and Kyo get closer, and Lily, Flo's cat, who helps her overcome her issues. Both of them seem to stay with their owners to help them get better.
I loved this book! The characters are so real, the plot is immersive, it seems like you're right there too. I highly reccomend it!

TW:mentions of injuries, suicide, alcoholism, mentions of the atomic bomb, mentions of war, drowning

This did not hold my interest. I thought it would be my kind of book but actually I just found Flo annoying and that made it difficult for me to connect with what was happening.
I read a lot of translated Japanese literature so I wonder if maybe my expectations were in the wrong place. Either way this was not for me.

“You can do it. You can make it. Just a little further.
Keep going.
You can do it.”

The emotions that ran through me as I read those lines. I had to pause and take a minute to regain control and still I was trembling, unsure of what it all meant. Afraid that it was the worst and that would destroy me.

This was such a beautiful story set in a story. There are two timelines for each season, one for Flo as she starts in a state of despair with her last translation not being well received and one for Ayako and Kyo as they adjust to a new relationship dynamic. Of the two, I preferred the delicate beauty of Ayako and Kyo’s. Ayako is steadfast in her habits, living her life in the memory of her husband and son and wanting to avoid her past mistakes while Kyo is torn between what his heart wants and what is expected of him. Slowly, these two very different individuals realise how alike they are and begin to help each other heal and find themselves.

The imagery and use of Japanese words in the story coupled with the adept handling of the characters and their emotions make this story a delight to read. Couple this with Flo’s growth as she translates the story, going from an insecure, aimless person to someone confident and driven, and you have a book that is unputdownable. I loved the social media posts that gave us some insights into the village of Onomichi and added greatly to the atmosphere created by Nick’s expert storytelling.

Having really enjoyed Nick Bradley’s first book, “The Cat and the City“, I jumped at the chance to get an advanced reader copy of his next. I wasn’t disappointed and will be getting the printed version once it’s available.

While both “Four Seasons in Japan” and “The Cat and the City” are set in Japan and cats appear in both, that is largely where the links end. While one character from the first book is in the second book, there is certainly no need to have read “The Cat and the City” first. While “The Cat and the City” was a collection of different stories that all had cats at their heart, “Four Seasons in Japan” primarily has two stories – one about a translator and the other being the text that they are translating. Both stories progress chronologically over a year through the four seasons (i.e. not counting “rainy season” as a season), albeit with recollections from other times too.

But, more than about the number of stories, and at the risk of people recalling a conversation in Shrek, “Four Seasons in Japan” is about layers. Other than one part of the translator’s story when they go to track down the author of the book they are translating, there is no particular mystery to be solved or mission to follow. It is about life and the challenges it presents. And there are multiple layers to that. It is easy to get drawn into the text – to the extent that by the end, when the actual author added their own acknowledgements, straight after translation notes from one of the characters (or was this the author himself explaining the way the text had been handled?), I had almost forgotten that there was an additional layer on top of all the others.

As with “The Cat and the City”, the parts which are meant to have been written by a Japanese person largely feel like a piece of a Japanese literature. While these have been very well translated (albeit I assume that the text was never originally in Japanese), there were many times where I could imagine what the original Japanese was when people were having conversations, for example. (I imagine one day that the book will be translated into Japanese – I look forward to seeing how this is done… a version with the Japanese ‘original’, but the English for the other storyline would also be interesting.)

There was so much in the characters that I could relate to (given that I was reading the book as many, including myself, were doing social media posts showing beautiful cherry blossom (sakura), I did have a wry smile when one of the characters thought that sakura is ‘overrated compared to the autumn leaves’ – something I agree with). At times, it is not an easy read – not because of the style, but because of the issues that the characters have to deal with and the way in which that can make you think about your own situation. While I can understand it when one character postulates ‘Who needs friends when you have books?’, there are times when books can take you places that you don’t want to go to.

On the issue of places to go to – the book is primarily set in one place – Onomichi in Hiroshima prefecture. Other than stepping off a slow-service shinkansen to take pictures of passing shinkansen, I have never been to Onomichi. Having read “Four Seasons in Japan” – which even includes some photographs to fit with Instagram posts by one of the characters – I feel more inclined to go. This would be ‘contents tourism’ – and, as I have written about before, one of the first times that I did this was when I went to Mount Tanigawa, which also comes up within “Four Seasons in Japan” (as well as my own novels). I did struggle to reconcile some of the descriptions of the mountain and what climbing it would be like, but I put this down to being particularly influenced by the novel and dramatizations of “Climber’s High” so I’m sure most people won’t have this problem. Many of the other places that come up in the book were also familiar to me – whether it be Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and the A-bomb dome, Miyajima, or even Saijo and Hiroshima University (thanks to it being one of my university’s exchange partners). I did like the way in which the book managed to entwine the atomic bombing into the story (the one which is being translated) – and even included one of the characters reading Kuroi Ame (“Black Rain”) – the dramatization of which I have written about before.

As I said, there was much I could relate to with the characters and many times I stopped and reflected upon what they were saying or doing, or, alternatively, wanted to quickly get onto the next sentence to see how they would resolve the situation. There are so many bits of text I have highlighted and would like to quote (as I often do with my reviews) – but I will leave them for another time and place perhaps. However, there one sentence that has played on my mind since reading it. ‘It seemed a dangerous thing, to want to create.’ Even now I cannot put into words all of my thoughts on this. I will need to think about it some more.

In the end, there was only one thing that I was not totally keen on about the book – and that’s the cover. I think it’s a shame that the centre of it is more about generic images of Tokyo/Japan than about places that are central to the book (i.e. Onomichi). In terms of marketing the book, I am sure that it will help attract readers, but I would have liked something more linked with some of the great images that appear within the book itself.

Linking with the front cover, some of its contents, and with the focus of the author’s first book, to finish off this review, I am going to end with a quotation from the book,

‘Oh, to be a cat,’ he says. ‘They dream, but they don’t let their dreams consume them. That’s the thing about humans – we feel like we have to make our dreams real. And that’s what causes us such joy and discontent.’

I absolutely loved this and look forward to buying it in book form and sharing with friends.
I enjoyed the development of a story within a story, the growth and depth of characters. I added the insights into Japan too. A country j love very much.

I very much enjoyed Nick Bradley’s The Cat and the City, its distinctive feline striding through the lives of a disparate set of Tokyoites. Similarly cleverly structured, his second novel sees a young translator whose appetite for life is ebbing away, becoming captivated by an abandoned book she finds on the subway.

When her girlfriend announced she was leaving for New York, Flo had already slipped into a depression. She’s not expecting much when she picks up The Sound of Water one evening after a rare night out with friends but finds herself transported by this story of a young man sent to live with the grandmother he barely knows when he fails his medical exams. When her editor shares her enthusiasm, she's determined to find the author.

Bradley’s a dab hand at intricately structuring novels as the cleverly interlocking narratives of The Cat and the City made clear. Four Seasons in Japan is a novel within a novel with a third story woven through, a tricky device which Bradley handles beautifully. A poignant coming-of-age story, The Sound of Water is the major narrative in which Ayako, stubborn to the point of obduracy, is determined that her grandson does the right thing while struggling with her own sadness and guilt at her son's suicide. Kyo looks down his nose at the country bumpkins of Onomichi but finds himself won over by their warmth, acceptance and encouragement of his artistic talent. These two both come to know each other and themselves as the year of Kyo’s study unfolds, some of their story mirroring Flo’s own difficulties. And, of course, there are cats: the one-eyed Coltrane appears in the charming illustrations which introduce each of The Sound of the River’s four seasons, looking every bit the insouciant gentleman.

3 ⭑

what really surprised me was how much i liked the writing style, even though it took me a long time to finish the book because i tried for a long time to get into the story but i just couldn't get into it no matter how hard i tried.i really wish i had more fun with this, but if you want to start reading japanese fiction, this would be a great place to start!

thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.- four season in japan

What I like most about Japanese novels is that they’re very gently written. There is a tenderness about the way the story unfolds and of the relationships between characters. Even when there is a negative scene - an argument or trauma, I don’t feel thrown into the chaos but guided through it. This book was no exception - two stories ran parallel to one another, the American translator and her journey with the book she found on the train, and the found book itself. I really liked this and think it’s a great starting point for people new to Japanese fiction.

Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life...

It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo. Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning.

This is a really beautifully written, cleverly structured book. A novel within a novel, one strand follows Flo (a character from "The Cat in the City") as she struggles with feeling lost and adrift in her life in Tokyo, until she finds a book called "Sound of Water," which she soon begins to translate. The other strand consists of this novel, which follows Ayako and Kyo, a grandmother and grandson living in Onomichi, a town in rural Japan. In a structural move reminiscent of to Ali Smith, the book is divided via seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). We not only get to see how the town changes over the course of the year, but also the slow transformation of Ayako and Kyo's relationship, which is initially quite cold and combative due to painful family secrets. I can't think of many novels that explore this relationship (grandmother and grandson) and I thought it was really beautifully done, with lots of sensitivity and empathy. We also follow Flo in her quest to track down the book's author, as well as her own journey of learning how to open up and communicate (which is cleverly ironic, considering her job as a translator). This is a great book for fans of David Mitchell, lovers of Japanese literature, and for people who want to read an encouraging, hopeful story about how to deal with failure and disappointment in life.