"Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions"

Off the back of Han Kang's brilliant and unique The Vegetarian I wanted to dip back into the work of South East Asian women writers and came across this novella from Yoko Ogawa. At only 173 pages this is a wonderfully concise slice of Japanese fiction translated into English by Stephen Snyder who has previously translated works for both Ogawa, Natsuo Kirino and Ryu Murakami.

Checking in to Hotel Iris is disturbing in itself. The mouldy and damp hotel crumbles in a forgotten sea-side resort somewhere in Japan managed by a cruel matriarch with her young daughter Mari forced to work on the reception. Out of season the hotel attracts unlikely guests such as a blind pensioner who is switched from a room with a sea view to one without on arrival. 

Mari is essentially trapped in a world entirely controlled by her mother until one day there is a ruckus in the hotel when a prostitute bursts from one of the bedrooms accusing a elderly guest of being violent towards her. Despite her mothers clear disgust Mari is drawn to the elderly man and begins to chat with him days later in the market.

The translator, as he is referred to, lives in an isolated house on a nearby island where he translates books into Russian. The attraction here to Mari is clear, over the water lies another world filled with everything that is missing from the Hotel Iris. 

As Mari gets to know the translator their relationship grows and once Mari enters his world she is subjected to a brutal attack. The incident leaves Mari questioning everything but she continues to see the Translator with a bizarre coming of age fascination. Like The Vegetarian, these passages are hard to read but strangely addictive.

There is no doubt that this book will speak to each reader in a unique way. For me Ogawa's story is about how tough and complicated the world outside can be. The chapter including the dinner party with the Translator's nephew I think beautifully captures the experience of reading the novel; unnerving and unforgettable.

I read this novel in paperback in June 2016 in part on the Southbank of the Thames.

Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa, published by Vintage, 173 pages