The shock of the grotesque and unnerving is evident in all these tales. This tale is the jumping off point for our immersion into a world in which eeriness and normality live side by side. It’s no longer a feel-good tale of an adoring mother wanting to buy just the perfect cake for her son, but one of tragedy and inconsolable grief. Supernatural and Normal Lie TogetherĪnd with that one line, Yoko Ogawa turns the whole story on its head. This innocent chit chat suddenly turns darker with the first customer’s response: The base is made with our special vanilla.” While waiting to be served she gets into a conversation with another customer, a trader in spices, who is a regular at the bakery:

You wouldn’t know that from the first story “ Afternoon at the Bakery” which is about a woman who goes to a bakery one sunny Sunday afternoon to buy two strawberry cakes. Each story follows on from the previous one, becoming increasingly unsettling and rather macabre. But I didn’t realise that Revenge isn’t a novel but a collection of eleven tales featuring characters who are seemingly disconnected.Īs you read on, you realise that the lives of these hospital workers, schoolchildren, writers, hairdressers and bakers are linked by recurring images and motifs. I’d read one book by Yoko Ogawa previously ( The Housekeeper and the Professor) and thoroughly enjoyed it so this seemed a good bet. I found it in the library when I was scouting around for Japanese authors I could read for Japanese Literature Challenge #13. Revenge by Yoko Ogawa is the darkest, strangest book I’ve read in a very long time.

Revenge yoko