Mailbox Monday (4)

( Mailbox Monday is created by  The Story Siren. )

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Beauty and Sadness

by Yasunari Kawabata

The successful writer Oki has reached middle age and is filled with regrets. He returns to Kyoto to find Otoko, a young woman with whom he had a terrible affair many years before, and discovers that she is now a painter, living with a younger woman as her lover. Otoko has continued to love Oki and has never forgotten him, but his return unsettles not only her but also her young lover. This is a work of strange beauty, with a tender touch of nostalgia and a heartbreaking sensitivity to those things lost forever.

I got this book because the idea of revisiting young love struck a chord in me. What would it be like to see a lover you had many years ago? What would it be like to see him or her in the arms of another? The thought has crossed my mind when I think of lovers I’ve had that I’ve lost. I often wonder what’s happened to them, so I think this book will resonate within me to some extent.

Have you ever gotten a book that touched you personally?

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