Takeout Sushi, an illustrated short-story collection book of 13 contemporary Japanese stories and four bonus tales from a debut British author, gives the readers mixed emotional feelings from each of its narratives.

Having lived in Japan for a long time, the author brings in the claustrophobic and congested city life, metro travel, and day-to-day commute to offices with his easy, readable, and flowy prose with precision.

These stories focus on the relationship dynamics of husband-wife, manager-employee, travel companions, strangers, and other whole lot of permutations and combinations that form the daily mundane human activities.

The first story, ‘Swallows’, is about a busy working husband and a housewife moving to a new apartment, where a sparrow builds a nest inside their corridor to safeguard her chicks. What happens to the nest and to the husband-wife duo at the end of the story was pretty much dealt with with a practical ending.

My favourite is ‘Burned’, a complete laugh riot with painful consequences, literally and figuratively, where a husband has fun time when his wife is on a work trip to Spain until he burns the outer skin of his private area while pressing his clothes. A humorous take on an untoward incident. If you are a man, you know and feel that pain!

Another moving tale is ‘Bodies’. It is about a British employee who has been assigned work in the Tokyo branch of his company who takes a weekend solo trip to a nearby mountain town for trekking to have a peaceful one, free of human distractions and the hustle and bustle of city life. However, he gets lost in the trekking journey and returns in the dark before a human hand comes to the rescue. The ending of this story was good in a subtle way.

Other favourites include ‘Magpie Man’, a story about an officegoer who treasures unwanted items left accidently by employees, commuters, and strangers until he is caught by a woman. Another funny tale that is quirky.

‘Misdirection’ is a sure-shot must-read story for its sheer ending. This is the revenge story of a couple who were misdirected by a local commuter and its repercussions. The revenge part is intelligently executed.

Apart from Japanese-set stories, there were four additional stories, which span a wide range of timelines and even include a war story (based on the First World War) and another revenge story of an ex-partner buying her past lover’s car model only to ditch it.

Overall, this short-story collection felt new, fresh, and contemporary in all aspects—story, plot, character, and the sheer ebb and flow of narration, which had a solid opening, a good middle portion, and a dramatic or perfect ending.

I would not say you will like all the stories in this collection, but I can guarantee that you can relate to most of the tales for their stupidity, genuine emotion, and human relationships.

In my effort to break out of my comfort zone and stop only reading a certain kind of book, I'll try out a new collection of short stories every so often, hoping it will inspire and enchant me. However, time after time, I end up being sort of underwhelmed.

Takeout Sushi is a collection of short stories that are mostly set in Japan and inspired by the author's personal life. While I did really enjoy some of them, others seemed almost pointless to me.

However, despite my mixed feelings, I believe any reader would be able to find a story that resonates with them. It's possible that one of the stories that left me feeling underwhelmed could be someone's new favorite.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed a lot this collection of short stories. As always with short stories, there were a few good ones, there were others I enjoyed only on the moment but there were also a lot I reread because I didn't want them to be finished.
For me, the stories set in Japan were more interesting and entertaining then the ones from other places and times.
The writing style is captivating. The author managed to teleporte me into each story from the first phrases.

A great collection of short stories based around the authors own experiences living abroad. Each story brings an aspect of interactions the characters have living in Japan. Cultural differences and norms shape the stories through the experiences the characters are having. Some of these were fun and funny, others were rich with mystery and dark humour at times. A great collection many would enjoy.

I don’t generally read short stories but I’m glad to have come across “Takeout Sushi”. This is a charming short stories collection, written in a witty and smart voice and reflecting on human experience against the backdrop of Japanese culture and everyday (and not) life. There is a lot of humour, dark and not, and plenty of beautiful illustrations preceding each story. I thought some of them had rather abrupt endings, but I enjoyed reading them overall. Thank you for the ARC, Neem Tree Press!

Thank you, Neem Tree Press, for the ARC!

A collection of slice-of-life short stories, predominantly set in Japan, and blending cultures in a reflection of the author's own experiences. My favourites were Spinning Wheels, Bodies, and Magpie Man, with an honourable mention to Misdirection.

Green is great at setting an emotional tone, the humour in these stories feels so natural, and at times he manages to build suspense and made me question whether the story was going to take a sinister or paranormal turn. The crippling second-hand embarrassment I got from The Jogger really shows the talent that Green has when bringing these emotions to life with mere words.

I do feel as though a lot of the stories end quite abruptly, though. Only a few have a real 'end' and offer closure. Also, while I enjoyed the last four stories, I wonder if it would have been more appropriate to only have stories centred around Japan for this book, and release another book with UK centred stories?

I liked Anywhere but Nice because I live in Dorset and I always love seeing the tiny seaside town mentioned, but-! The train she gets is mentioned as leaving the New Forest, and then she catches a glimpse of the Channel. I'm sure Green already knows this and is just being creative for the sake of the story, but for anyone getting their hopes up of a picturesque seaside train journey, this isn't actually possible.

3.5/5

"Takeout Sushi" is quite a neat composition, I must say. It's brilliantly written with a solemn atmosphere. It portrays a diverse and unique array of narrative, each invoking a different set of emotions. What's particularly striking is the impeccable craftsmanship evident in every story. Each storyline is meticulously infused with palpable creative consistency. The juxtaposition of various human experiences lends the collection a sense of poignancy.

A collection of illustrated shirt stories, which reflect the author's own experiences and definitely have a slice of life feel to them. My students have a new fascination with translated fiction, so I think they will really enjoy this.

Takeout Sushi is a collection of 17 illustrated short stories set mostly in contemporary Japan that explore feelings of belonging, displacement, and the strangeness of everyday human interaction.

These adult fiction stories were inspired by his own experiences and had a slice-of-life feel. Like all collections of stories, I enjoyed some more than others, but the writing flowed and was easy to read. Some stories were witty, while others were more mandane. I still found enjoyment in all the stories.

I rate this book 3.5 🌟

I'd like to say a huge thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I read this collection of short stories in one sitting and liked it, and I love my books with a little illustration here and there!!🥹✋🏼

!!𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗺 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 & 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗰 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!!

3.5 stars! A charming collection of domestic stories taking place all over the world (mainly Tokyo and the UK) exploring casual interactions and commonplace experiences that cause us to feel isolated, displaced, seen, and loved. A small but frustrating dispute between a married couple about a bird nest. A manager witnessing and being subjected to a rollout of robotic managers that dehumanise her. A complacent worker from Scotland outstationed to Tokyo finally finds comfort in new friendships after getting lost hiking down a mountain post-sunset. A man seeking the comfort of his childhood pool. In all these stories, we're reminded of how stubborn, silly, irrational, passionate and empathetic we, people, can be. We crave predictability for comfort. We crave variety for growth. The array of stories in this collection does a lovely job depicting little slices of these facets of humanity.

Thanks to Netgalley and Neem Tree Press for providing me with the e-ARC/DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This book features a collection of illustrated short stories, mainly set in Japan. There were a nice variety of stories covering different elements of the human experience. I really enjoyed the illustrations at the start of each story, I thought they were beautiful and I enjoyed trying to guess what the story would be about based on the title and illustration.

Overall this was an enjoyable, quick read and something a little bit different from the standard fiction book. As they were short stories, some of them felt very surface level, but others still managed to contain real depth to the stories.

Thank you Neem Tree Press, Christopher Green and NetGalley for the ARC!

This is one of the best short story collections I’ve read. Each story has its charm and the range of viewpoints we get are fascinating. Some are in the first person, some are third person; some from a foreigner’s perspective, some from a Japanese perspective. The robot managers story is a masterclass in black humour and the criminal “confessions” are hilarious (particularly as we only get one side of the story). The ironing story, well, just read it and chortle! The illustrations at the start of each story are very well done and set up the story without giving away the twists. Well worth a read then a re-read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I think this book was good. I requested it because it sounded interesting, and it was. The cast of characters was interesting and all so different from one another. I love the setting and environment this book created it really helped to create well rounded and dynamic characters

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories a lot. As is always the case with these collections I preferred some stories to others. But overall they were all very entertaining and especially the last ones were very different in tone and setting. I also adored the illustrations.

4.75/5 stars!

A collection of short, illustrated stories from the country I most want to visit, Japan? YES PLEASE. To say that I ate this up was a complete understatement. I really, really enjoyed these short stories. And it would have been a solid 5 stars if this book had of actually teleported me to Japan. The authors writing is quick, witty, and it fully traps you in all the right ways! I cannot wait to read more by this author.

A massive thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley UK for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don’t typically gravitate towards short stories, but something about “Takeout Sushi” caught my eye. These short stories are filled with micro moments of what it truly feels like to live this human experience. Christopher Green skillfully integrates cultural elements from Japan, not just as a backdrop, but as essential threads that add depth and authenticity to each story. Rich in unique perspectives, these stories are definitely worth revisiting.
Thank you Neem Tree Press/Christopher Green/NetGalley for the ARC!