The Miracles of the Namiya General Store: Keiko Higashino

 *SPOILER AHEAD*

This might be the latest Keigo Higashino's book I've finished so far. After reading Detective Gallileo Series and Kyoichiro Kaga Saga, and a few other books from him, there's simply nothing left to read since not every book written by him are translated to English (It's so unfortunate because in the past three week I've been binge-reading his book after book).

It's about a gang of robbers who just leave the crime scene and accidentally choose a general store as a hideout after one of the gang member suggest that there's no one who live in the place. The three of them, Atsuya, Shota, and Kohei decide to lie low until the sun rise when something absurd happens in the store. It starts with a letter which is dropped from the letter box on the shutter. Thinking someone is toying with them, Atsuya goes outside to stakeout the place. Things get more bizzare when the letter keep coming back after Shota write it back and put it in the milk crate. At that point, they concur that the mysterious letter is coming from the past by how the writer describe her story and the world she's in. From that point, they pretend to be the old man who gives the advice to people who live in the past.

It's followed by another third-person omniscient point of view of several other people who are somehow intertwined and related to one another to the store and another place which is an orphanage. From the person who fails to become a renowned musician and sacrifice his life to save a little boy from a fire which inspires his big sister to become a musician, a middle-schooler who decides to run away from home because they family are in debt which the writer uses break-up of The Beatles as the metaphor, or a young girl who is working as a hostess in a club to become a billionaire in the future by revealing her a glimpse of what would happen in the next decades such as japanese bubble economy and the new era of computer.

The strong point of this novel is how I love the story tells about the cause-and-effect or casuality induced iniated by advices from an old-coot to each different person. And also how every person seems to have their own lives, backgrounds, and problems that makes the story feels unique and rich. 

About the shortcoming of this novel, I get it why some people find the story a little bit boring and the story doesn't touch them. If you expect something deep and traumatic, I can guarantee you will soon lose interest because I think the book itself is simple. I would say the audience of this book suits teenagers and young adults more.

So, that's it. 

I want to personally thank Keigo Higashino for writing such great books for a long periode of time. It means a lot, because I've been entertained by your books for weeks, and I'll be forever grateful for it. I can't wait to read another book in the near future. You're definitely my top three writers of all time.