Colorful by Eto Mori

 

I'm always on the lookout for new to me authors and books to expand my reading horizons. One never knows when they'll discover their next favorite author or book!

I decided to listen to the unabridged audio version of Colorful by Eto Mori, which is well narrated by Brian Nishii. I've never read anything by Eto Mori before, let along heard of her before. Eto Mori is a Japanese writer.

I liked this coming of age novel. It deals with the topic of teenage suicide in a unique way. The topic of suicide is depressing, of course, but the storyline itself makes you think about suicide in a different way... Colorful is about second chances... I felt like Colorful is about hope... Or at least gives one hope that things in life will not always remain the same, which is an important concept for youngsters going through tough times.

Below is the publisher's summary for Colorful by Eto Mori from the Goodreads website:

A beloved and bestselling classic in Japan, this groundbreaking tale of a dead soul who gets a second chance is now available in English for the very first time.

"Congratulations, you've won the lottery!" shouts the angel Prapura to a formless soul. The soul hasn't been kicked out of the cycle of rebirth just yet—he's been given a second chance. He must recall the biggest mistake of his past life while on 'homestay' in the body of fourteen-year-old Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide. It looks like Makoto doesn't have a single friend, and his family don't seem to care about him at all. But as the soul begins to live Makoto's life on his own terms, he grows closer to the family and the people around him, and sees their true colors more clearly, shedding light on Makoto's misunderstandings.

Since its initial release over twenty years ago, Colorful has become a part of the literary canon, not only in Japan—where it has sold over a million copies—but around the world, having been translated into several different languages. Now, Eto Mori's beloved classic is finally available in English.

I am giving Colorful by Eto Mori a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!