Welcome to Litsy!

While not a perfect novel (it can feel a bit stilted and awkward in style at times, perhaps a translation thing?) this feels quite special.

As a young boy in Tokyo, Rei witnesses his father's arrest and the destruction of his beloved violin. Coming of age in France, he devotes his life to the reconstruction of his father's treasured instrument. A quiet story about beauty in the face of destructive, oppressive elements, I'm glad to have read it.

📚 𝓢𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓰𝓮 🎶

I'm an ambassador for the annual 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞.

The 1st featured book is 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥 by 𝐀𝐤𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐢𝐳𝐮𝐛𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢 (translated by Alison Anderson). Music is at the heart of this work of fiction, & I'm looking forward to reading it. (Published 3/14/23.)

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘥?

Âme brisée
This title plays on the various meanings of the word “âme“ in French: soul, core and the part of a string instrument called a sound post in English (I had to look it up).
Japanese author Mizubayashi wrote this novel in French. Rei is a Japanese boy whose father was taken by the Japanese police, along with his Chinese friends in 1938, and never returned. He has a broken soul and his father's broken violin.