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I'm gonna be honest: I kind of have no clue what I just read. But I liked it? I think this book would be even better on a re-read (and it's only 100 pages so that's totally doable). It reads like a little puzzle and each chapter you get a new piece but you aren't quite sure where it goes until you finish and even then it takes some effort to put it all together. Maybe the point isn't to try and even piece it all together but enjoy the process, the struggle, the ideas, the creativity.

Basically this book is sort of about an author named Tomoyuki Tomoyuki who is able to go to a place and quickly learn the language and write a story in that language. Then they leave and are nearly impossible to track down. Sort of like a literary Banksy. No one really knows who the author is and where they are at any given time. But A.A. Abrams is trying to track the author down and will go to great lengths to try and collect all of their scattered works and piece together the puzzle of who this author is.

But really the book is about so much more than that. It's about language, translation, the malleability of our minds, travel, creativity, ideas and more.

I feel like people just have to experience this book for themselves, and try to not cling too hard to conventions of what a novel is and instead experience this book for what it is: a journey. If you like short weird little books, especially translated books and Japanese fiction, I'd give this one a shot! I think I'll revisit it someday and see if I uncover more from within its labyrinthine pages.