I do believe that a good library is the answer to many questions. When I was in school, I spent a lot of time in the school library. In college, my friend and I even found a library outside the college campus. Books have always been my best friends. So, when I read the title of this book, I just had to pick it up.

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Japanese writer Michiko Aoyama and translated to English by Alison Watts is a collection of short stories all coming together in the community centre library.

The main character in each chapter find themselves in the library, in front of the librarian Samuri Koyachi. Not only does she help the protagonists with reference books, she also recommends them books that end up becoming a lifeline for them.

The characters are totally relatable and thebwriting is simple and sweet. The scenes flow from one to another and the book leaves a warm glowing feeling in the heart. It is no doubt a feel good book that you must definitely read.

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.“

The five characters are a clothes salesgirl hoping to find a better job, an accountant who wants to open his antique shop, a new mother who has been transferred to another department once she comes back from her maternity leave, an unemployed artist and a newly retired man who has worked for the same company for 45 years.

They are all stuck at various stages in life and the librarian’s recommendation simply guides them towards the path they can take for a more fulfilled life.

My favourite story was that of Natsumi, who has been sidelined at work after she had a baby. She is trying hard to balance work and raising a child but she is also feeling resentful because she feels that her career is going nowhere. The book recommendation by the librarian changes her life too, not in a profound way but just a little shift in her thinking and she makes for herself a new and happier career and becomes a better mom and partner.

Madam Mizue put down her spoon. “Ah, Ms. Sakitani, so you’re on the merry-go-round, too,” she said gently.

“The merry-go-round?”

With a chuckle she smiled at me. “It’s a very common condition,” she said with apparent relish. “Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round. But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”

It’s a small but a charming book and will definitely keep you hooked till the end. And yes, you will crave a library after reading this book.

My rating: 4.8/5