RaveThe Hindustan Times (IND)The essence of Kawakami’s work is her ability to look beyond the surface and dissect the fibre of the feeling she’s trying to hold on to. What she does in her latest offering is close to wondrous. Through Fuyuko Irie, she creates a world where the idea of being comfortable with one’s own self is underrated, where the individual lives in ambiguity and insecurity because that’s the norm; where not conforming to the conventional has no space ... a novel about hope. It tells you that when you hit rock bottom, all you can do is rise.
Mieko Kawakami, tr. David Boyd and Sam Bett
PositiveHindustan Times (IND)Heaven begins on a sensitive and somewhat happy note of friendship, where the two pariahs find comfort in each other’s words. But as the story progresses, a deeply disturbing sequence of events begin to play out ... In Heaven, Kawakami contributes to the conversation on high-school bullying. On the surface are the intense, graphic details of the actual abuse. Underneath the physical suffering, there are layers internalized anxiety. As a reader, you find yourself praying with every turn of the page that it doesn’t get worse. But it does, leaving you sad and helpless ... It is necessary to have conversations around mental health and well being. A book like Heaven might be difficult to read, but it is important, timely, and necessary.
