People From My Neighbourhood

She snapped open the lid. Inside was a whitish, squishy substance. I asked her what it was. ‘‘Brains,'' she replied. ‘‘Doll brains.'‘

Do you ever feel the urge to peep through a caramel-lit window during an evening stroll in the neighbourhood to catch a glimpse of your neighbours' lives? I certainly do. When I was a child, I used to create stories based on the flitting images I'd capture, blurry behind the curtains or through the open windows on a summer night. In any case, Hiromi Kawakami's neighbourhood is extremely different from all the neighbourhoods in the world.

At least, I hope so...

A boy that doesn't seem to grow over the years. A mysterious elderly lady who might just be a criminal instead of royalty. A gifted child who keeps his strange ‘‘office'' in the park. A girl collects doll brains. A middle-aged woman keeps a restaurant called The Love, which has a very special menu, a lonely karaoke, and hardly any customers. A juvenile delinquent becomes the pride of her hometown. A lottery decides the family that will provide refuge to the youngest child of a poor family. A grandpa has two shadows. A housing development consists of apartments where families of six reside. Six being the number of the Devil, of course. Two girls who live across the street from one another spend their lives in a deep hatred for each other, only to end up in misery.

A serious pandemic appears that turns people into pigeons, causing absolute havoc, and you can imagine the serious repercussions of a no-gravity alert. The story of a found baby teaches us about all the mysterious supernatural creatures of Japanese tradition. A new school named The House of Sweets is created, only to fall prey to the gluttony and greed of children. And no neighbourhood would be complete without shacks full of emotions.

These are only a few of the neighbourhood's strange, eerie, satirical but extremely thought-provoking events in a marvellously ingenious book by one of the best writers of our times.

''Eat all the bugs we want! Make all the babies we can!'‘

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