This book was my introduction to Two Lines Press, bought from their AWP promotion at the start of the pandemic. I read it for January in Japan.

Let's be honest. I bought this book for the octopus on the cover, and tragically, the only octopus in the story gets eaten. But I didn't feel cheated at all. This book reminded me a bit of Ms Ice Sandwich, in that both books have that quiet melancholy feeling that good translated Japanese literature often gives me, and both feature fourth-grade boys as protagonists dealing with, shall we say, sub-optimal home lives (disengaged mothers, absence of father figures). This one take the latter to an extreme, and one of the running themes of the book seems to be: How do you experience care and affection from others when the person who is "supposed" to model that for you gives none?

There is more here, as well, of course. Ghosts, the fallibility of memory, the ways communities do and do not care for the most vulnerable, a possibly magical dolphin.

A strange thought, but it reminds me of the unexpected cultural resonance of the Moomins with the Japanese. It's got some of that same understanding of both the tenderness and the viciousness of childhood.

Anyway, I was swept up in it, and I really enjoyed it.

I do also want to say, as physical books, Two Lines' books are BEAUTIFUL. Arresting cover designs, French flaps, clean interiors. This is pretty much my ideal paperback format, which makes it my ideal book format. ( )