LITERATURE
January Book Club Charlotte Griffiths picks the perfect motivational and reflective reads for a new year Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon
MIZUKI TSUJIMURA
If you were given the chance to talk with someone who had passed away, who would you choose? Would you think differently if you knew they’d only get one chance to speak with someone from the world of the living? Should you be taking that opportunity – or is there another person who needs to speak with them? It’s these questions that the characters wrestle with throughout this million-copy-selling puzzle box novel, the first in the Lost Soul series. Writer Mizuki Tsujimura and translator Yuki Tejima have created beautifully drawn, domestic stories of loss, love, heartache and grief, presented in soothingly formulaic chapters, following the people seeking the help of the mysterious Go Between. We meet an eldest son who wants to speak with his recently deceased mother, a teenage girl who has lost her best friend in an accident and a young woman who wishes to spend a night with her celebrity idol. At first, the reasons behind these requests appear straightforward, but what’s always surprising and satisfying about Mizuki’s award-winning novels are the twists, turns and unexpected complexities. There’s also Ayumi, the handsome young Go Between himself, currently learning his trade as the youngest in an unbroken line of family members with this life-altering magical responsibility. It’s a wistful novel about being kind, taking chances and confronting missed opportunities, as there’s no better time than right now to say what’s on your mind – because you never know when, or even if, you might get another opportunity. There’s no better time than right now to say what’s on your mind
Educated TARA WESTOVER
between herself and her family, the ties that bind continually pull her back home as she tries to help her siblings and find some sort of meaning in her parents’ choices. Along with the book being superbly written, that narrative would be enough as it is – but the true beauty of this story lies in the moments, the seconds-long yet world- expanding interactions and decisions that, piece-by-piece, continually move Tara on towards her uncertain goal. Educated is an extraordinary tale of one young woman’s determination and perseverance, which should serve as a reminder to all of us that very little in life is truly impossible. If you’re dreaming of a particular future for yourself, it is almost certainly within your grasp.
If one of the joys of reading is to ‘try on’ a different life to your own, then it makes sense to seek out books which contain truly singular lived experiences, and Tara Westover’s story is absolutely one of those. Educated is Tara’s own account of growing up in an extremist Mormon family living in Idaho, deliberately isolated from society, modern medicine and traditional education. Against all odds she finds a path to access books and the knowledge she craves, making it to college, then Brigham Young University in Utah and eventually a study abroad programme. This leads her to Cambridge, where she wins The Gates Scholarship to pursue a PhD in our city. Though she has successfully put oceans (both literal and emotional)
26 JANUARY 2026 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
Powered by FlippingBook