Chapter 6

Commentary Ritsuko Sanbe (Professional Translator) There are many books about books. Books containing stories (stories within stories), books with characters that love reading, books set in libraries or bookstores, books on the history or trajectory of books. People of all ages and backgrounds write about books, and Whoever Steals This Book is a new addition to this prestigious tradition. However, one major difference separates this story from the majority of books about books that have been published to date. The lead character, our high school student Mifuyu, doesn’t like books! Mifuyu was born into the Mikura family, who owns Mikura Hall in Yomunaga, a building that is “a massive library that [stretches] from its second-floor basement to two stories.” Her great-grandfather was a book collector renowned throughout Japan. Her grandmother Tamaki greatly increased the collection, and her father, Ayumu, and her aunt Hirune now look after it. Yomunaga is known as the Town of Books, and booklovers flock to this city. The town has around fifty stores related to books, including new bookstores, stores specializing in children’s books, and used bookstores handling rare books and translated novels, as well as book cafés and variety stores with things like bookmarks and other book-related goods. The town even has Yomunaga Shrine, which houses an Inari goddess that protects literature. It is a dream town for anyone who picked up this book (probably a booklover). However, Mifuyu absolutely hates everything involving books. “Mifuyu didn’t even like books. She didn’t read. She despised books.” However, Mifuyu gets dragged into a situation where she has to read. Because the book curse cast over Mikura Hall has been triggered. What is a book curse, you ask? People used to write curses inside books (book curses) to prevent them from being stolen. In the library of ancient Assyria, curses were attached to books (clay tablets at the time) that would curse anyone and the descendants of anyone who walked away with a book or wrote their name in one without permission. Apparently, even in the Middle Ages, some people would write things like, “If anyone take away this book, let him die the death; let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen.” That curse was nothing but torture! Back then, the skin of hundreds of sheep was required to create the parchment for a book, and each letter had to be copied by hand, so books were extremely valuable items, and it’s no wonder that writing a curse that vicious would make some people think twice about stealing. And now a book curse has been cast upon the books inside Mikura Hall. One day, Mifuyu visits Mikura Hall without knowing about any of that and meets a girl with bleach-white hair. Her name is Mashiro. She tells Mifuyu that some books were stolen from Mikura Hall and that triggered the curse, which has transformed the entire town into the world of the story. The thief is trapped in this town, which has become a story world. The only way to release the curse is to catch the thief. Mifuyu refuses to believe such an absurd tale, but once she steps outside, the town has transformed into a world of magical realism, where the moon winks and it rains pearls… And so each time a book is stolen from Mikura Hall, Mifuyu enters either a world of magical realism, a hard-boiled world, a world of fantasy and steam, or a world of a lonely town—trapped in the cage of a story. The depictions of each of these changed towns is one appealing aspect of reading this book. The magical world where the night sky is “the body of a giant black cat,” the hard-boiled world where a swaggering detective “[tosses] his cigarette butt into a stinking gutter” while saying things like “I’m no stranger to dancing with the devil,” and the steampunk-like world where giant gears turn in a massive factory and white steam billows—the author uses such descriptions to vividly paint each world with sentences that match each genre. It’s natural, then, that this one book should appeal to a wide variety of people. The author, Nowaki Fukamidori, made her debut with Au Blanc no Shoujo (The girls of the white garden), a collection of historical fiction and dark fantasy stories, where Armed with Skillets and Berlin wa Hareteiruka (Is it sunny in Berlin?) are both set in war zones and based on a tremendous amount of references material. (Please check out the list of references at the end of the books!) She doesn’t limit herself to one genre, however. Wakaremichi Nostradamus (Nostradamus and the forking path) is a coming-of-age story about the life of a modern high school student, God is Hard to Find brings together a collection of short sci-fi stories, and Staffroll is a feminist novel describing working conditions in the film industry. The author writes freely across a wide range of genres. All her books, however, are mysteries of the highest caliber. Any Fukamidori book contains some aspect of solving a mystery, and she reels us into her stories. This book, of course, is no different. With it, we can’t stop turning the pages as we lose ourselves in the various mysteries, from chapter-specific mysteries like what (genre of) story will Mifuyu be trapped in and the identity of the thief in that world, to mysteries that span the entire book like where the stories come from, how the book curse came to be, Mashiro’s true identity, who Hirune really is, and so much more. We read, following each interweaving thread…until the author finally masterfully reveals how all the threads ultimately connect. I’d like to mention one more wonderful aspect of Fukamidori’s works. In this book, Mashiro always has Mifuyu’s back. Mifuyu is utterly lost in these story prisons, but Mashiro is always there to guide her. And then Mifuyu eventually helps Mashiro. That reciprocity and discovering Mashiro’s true identity are real highlights of the book. The two of them reminded me of Marguerite and Myosotis in Au Blanc no Shoujo (The girls of the white garden). Looking at it from 2023, two girls supporting each other through extreme circumstances is the essence of sisterhood literature. In that way, Kataomoi (Unrequited love) in the same collection of short stories tells of the “core” within Iwa-sama’s soul. “It is an honor that you permit me to bear part of this heavy burden.” The two of them share the hardships of life while managing to survive, supporting each other and overcoming obstacles. I think that Mifuyu and Mashiro carry on the sisterhood that Matilda and Vivienne share in Staffroll. They live in different times and work different jobs, but in many ways, they bear the same hardships. I’m about at my page limit, but I’d like to discuss one more point about Fukamidori’s works. And that is that all the food sounds so good! While the dishes themselves are not luxurious or anything, the depictions of the shopping district are so enjoyable. The skewers of grilled bonito where she describes “the skin and fat from the blue-backed fish as it sizzled above the coals” that comes with green onion, shiso, Japanese ginger, and grated ginger sound delectable. I loved the details like the chicken-butcher owner as he “deftly turned rows of sticks” of grilled yakitori and the daughter remembering which one of her customers preferred salt or sauce. The scene is filled with living depictions of Yomunaga, which is precisely what emphasizes the state of the town after its changes. Pickled plum and soy-boiled seaweed “nestled” in white rice, “Szechuan chicken in a thick leek sauce”… All of it sounds scrumptious. In Armed with Skillets, I can’t forget the food that the grandmother of Tim, the protagonist, prepared. Deviled eggs using sweetly tangy pickles, fried apples, and scones. Even on the battlefield, Tim cooked good meals using apples and sausage. However, the war intensified afterward, and he couldn’t cook proper meals anymore. Fukamidori’s works make subtle use of these culinary scenes. The alligator soup served as Auguste works in the US army kitchens in The Berlin Sonne (if you wonder why, then read the book); the gyro at a Greek restaurant during Matilda’s training, and the food made according to the laws of kashruth (dietary regulations concerning the foods that Jewish people can eat) in Staffroll; and the croissant filled with red wild-strawberry jam in The Girls of the White Garden (an important point). In A Lone Memory, the smell of roasted mackerel indicates the making of amends. One last, final point. (I know, I know!) Fukamidori’s works prominently feature young protagonists, and I would love for more young readers to pick up her works.