Durian Sukegawa

Meet Sentaro, a bit of a loser who has a humdrum existence making and selling sweet bean dorayaki for his snack-shack. They're not the best - he cuts corners. Then along comes Tokue, a spectacularly ugly old woman who begs him for a job, and finally he gives in. She introduces him to her highly superior sweet bean paste, and business looks up. He learns that she had been incarcerated in a leper colony for much of her life- hence her deformities - though she is no longer infectious. This is their story - one of confronting prejudice and your own demons, and in which they come to learn that being a useful member of society is not the be-all and end-all. Instead, humans exist to verify the existence of the universe. That is enough. A charming and lyrically written story, if perhaps a little sentimental for hard-bitten English sensibilities.… (more)