Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon / Mizuki Tsujimura
trans. from the Japanese by Yuki Tejima
NY: Scribner, 2025, c2010.
256 p.

I'm not sure why there seem to be so many Japanese books about people meeting up with the dead, but there are quite a few that I've read recently. This is one that stuck with me, featuring a "go-between" who arranges meetings between the living and the dead. 

You only find the go-between if you are meant to, and you can then request a meeting with someone you want to talk to one more time. The go-between will pass on the message but the dead person may refuse, or they may have already spoken to someone -- and you only get one chance, either way. The living can only request it once, and the dead can only accept once, so they must be careful to choose wisely. 

In this book, we follow four characters all wanting to speak to someone deceased -- a young woman from Tokyo who wants to speak to a TV star who she didn't actually know, a self-important eldest son who wants to see his mother only to ask where the deeds to a plot of land are; a teenager blaming herself for her best friend’s death; and a sad businessman needing answers about why his fiancée disappeared days after he proposed.

Each story is a bit melancholy, although the one featuring the teen besties didn't go as I'd expected - still so much teen drama even after death! And there is some kind of lesson in each, as they seek closure (not always given). In each we learn more about the teenaged go-between, until more is shared about his story near the end. 

I liked this one; it was unexpected and well developed. The stories weren't predictable or saccharine, there was a bit of darkness, a bit of intrigue. The set-up was good and there is a second volume in this series that I'm going to search out too, and see if this conceit can hold up over another book. But this one is worth trying if you like this genre - pretty well written and good concept!