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Fault Lines: Shortlisted for the 2021 Costa First Novel Award

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This is a beautiful character study and one that isn’t afraid to present a flawed person making some bad, but very realistic decisions.

Infusing wit into the daily life of a Japanese wife and mother, Mizuki was written with warmth and humor in contrast to the not so nice aspect of her adulterous affair. Mizuki, Itami’s protagonist, lives in Tokyo with her husband, Tatsuya, and their two children, daughter Eri and son Aki. The initial passionate flame in her "carefully chosen" marriage is extinguished by the passage of time and the rigours of the Japanese work ethic. Mizuki, the desperately unhappy Tokyo housewife at the center of Fault Lines by Emily Itami (out Sept. Narrated by four children from different generations of the same family, Fault Lines is a tale of a present haunted by the past.

I was immediately intrigued and warmed to Mizuki and how she reacted to the two different lives she has ended up and how the cultural expectations impacted her. While a somewhat pat ending feels unworthy of the novel’s provocative premise, Itami makes palpable Mizuki’s loneliness and her need to feel seen. She has a beautiful home and family that most people dream of, and her husband, while distant, is a good man. As a new mom and wife, it was easy to connect with the pangs of longing Mizuki felt throughout the novel as she contemplated all she had but all she'd had to give up to get there. Used books have different signs of use and might not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material.

Going in i didn't expect much, but honestly I was completely mesmerised by this story, im unsure how to explain why this book was so good because its nothing special or full of action, its simple, kind, a heartwarming story about a mum, her kids, her family and her emotions. I found it atmospheric and transporting but also wise, clever and universal in its exploration of love, family and identity. In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, where a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery. This one was also interesting to me as it takes place in California where my daughter is now living. They needed her and she was certainly not going to abandon them to an emotionally stifled life by choosing to run off with Kiyoshi to New York.

Their affair is dreamy to read about: They meet in tucked-away neighborhoods like Kagurazaka, which is filled with cobblestoned streets, French cafes and historic geisha homes. Beginning in Atlanta, Merritt Fowler is the second wife of a doctor, whose mother, who lives with them, has a more advanced stage of Alzheimers than her husband is willing to acknowledge.

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