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Heaven

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Heaven

By: Mieko Kawakami
Narrated by: Scott Keiji Takeda
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'Mieko Kawakami is a genius' - Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times

From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami, comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a fourteen-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying.

In Heaven, a fourteen-year old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror?

Unflinching yet tender, sharply observed, intimate and multi-layered, this simple yet profound novel stands as yet another dazzling testament to Mieko Kawakami’s uncontainable talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors at work today.

'An expertly told, deeply unsettling tale of adolescent violence' - Vogue

Translated from the Japanese by David Boyd and Sam Bett.

Translation © 2021 by Mieko Kawakami©2021 Mieko Kawakami (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing Inc Coming of Age Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Parenting & Families Relationships Teenagers Thought-Provoking
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Interesting, though at times tiring. It revolves around bullying and how it is experienced by adolescents but sometimes felt repetitive. However, I’m glad I read it.

It was ok

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a great book, and a heartbreaking story, from a fairly new Japanese writer, at least for the West. this author's books stood out from other translated Japanese books i encountered so far in the UK, as trying to portray darker aspects of life and human personality, with well built characters, difficult themes, and evolving plots.
in this book, a story about children subjected to extreme bullying and the culture which can create a tragic scenario like this.
a crushing story, nicely written, in a very good book, and with good performance for the audio format.

heartbreaking

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No, this is not some mindless venture into torture porn as previous reviewer will have you believe. The story doesn’t serve you an analysis on a plate. Indeed it explores mechanisms of bullying, coping strategies that young victims adopt in order to survive, human capacity to do evil and the blindness of the adult world. Main protagonist of the story is believable even though his inability to act has made me furious on several occasions. At the end of the day though, I found I could relate to his point of view.
Overall, this was a heartfelt read that took me through a whole range of emotions. And it’s not based on shock value because there is non here. The author describes horrible things but just graphic enough for them to register. There is also hope and light amidst the darkness here that should be mentioned.

Heartfelt

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This book describes, in at times horrific detail, two teenagers’ experience of being tortured, humiliated and bullied in an unnamed Japanese middle school and their budding but covert friendship based on this perverse bond. Setting aside the obvious questions about how the bullies go unnoticed and unpunished when they go to the brutal extremes detailed here, the main problem with this book is that it really has nothing to say about any of this. Lengthy, graphic, repetitive descriptions feel like torture porn for pure shock value rather than any deep exploration of the events in the book. Meanwhile, tiresome and half-baked monologues offer nothing but juvenile nihilism. It all feels oddly flat given the subject. The (too old) narrator’s dry, nasal and robotic reading is irritating and flattens the story even further.

Exploitative

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