Sweet Bean Paste

De: Durian Sukegawa, Alison Watts - translator

Narrado por: Cindy Kay

Duración: 5 h y 4 m

Resumen del Editor

A charming tale of friendship, love, and loneliness in contemporary Japan

Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

But everything is about to change.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue's dark secret is revealed, with devastating consequences.

Sweet Bean Paste is a moving novel about the burden of the past and the redemptive power of friendship. Translated into English for the first time, Durian Sukegawa's beautiful prose is capturing hearts all over the world.

©2013, 2015 Durian Sukegawa; English translation copyright 2017 by Alison Watts (P)2022 Tantor

This is one I could listen to over and over again

I really appreciate the empathy that's built into this beautiful multi phase of life story. It's also read beautifully with voices and nice pronunciation of the Japanese words.

Amazing, heartfelt

This book moved me. It was so lovely, the characters were well written. I intend to buy the paperbook and watch the movie. Loved it.

Beautiful

Sensitive touching story that would touch everyone who has had a special relationship with a grandparent, parent or family member.
Also brings to light the taboo of disease discrimination that should be considered after the pandemic.
And the ending ponders on life after death. What do we know? We can keep wondering.

Short but sweet

This was a really sweet and simple story. I also learned a little bit about Hanson’s disease. If you’re looking for a nice easy listen with a beautiful meaning this will definitely work for you.

Magical

This short book contains one of the most moving stories of kindness, humanity, and found family I have ever encountered. I can not recommend it strongly enough.

Emotional

Loved the story and the flow … definitely impressive and emotional on so many levels 💜
I enjoyed learning about the characters and their growth through a short story 💜

All the metaphors track

The metaphors were particularly stunning. The characters were real and the narration was good. I would recommend this to a friend.

Judging Others Makes Us Blind - Dietrich Bonhoeffe

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa is mostly what it seems to be and then it takes a dark turn. If you are looking for a sweet, lighthearted book, this is not it. The writing is solid. The story begins sweetly and follows the unusual relationship between a confectionary shop worker and a sweet, somewhat mysterious elderly woman.

Cherry blossoms figure prominently as does the actual process of creating sweet bean paste. The story also includes a schoolgirl. The inclusion of this character was puzzling to me until after the dark turn of the story. There is no violence. Only angst and sorrow. This is a very heavy book and so it surprised me, but not in a pleasant way. The writing, narration performance, and characters were strong enough to keep me listening until the end.

I am grateful for Sweet Bean Paste. I think of myself as a person who harbors very little prejudice and yet this subject matter became a very uncomfortable mirror for me. I learned that I need to do more work!

The writing and research by Durian Sukegawa is very strong. However, the story does not really lend itself to such heavy issues and so I did not rate the story itself as high. The narration performance by Cindy Kay is very good and supports, even expands the material.

I would recommend Sweet Bean Paste to writers who are interested in starting social justice conversations with their work and to anyone who wants to be challenged about their own perceptions and prejudice.