This book is really touching. I bought to compare its style to a version translated to Spanish. If it makes any difference: I recommend this translation.

I am not a huge fan of authors who are dubbed as "geniuses" because they write their books like they are writing poetry. Using beautiful, visceral language to tell a story about bullying is a good idea in theory, and for the most part, Mieko does it well. But this book would have been about thirty pages long if you take out the constant similes and metaphors that I swear occurs every other sentence. It's just... a bit too much and by the end of the book, I found myself skipping over parts because these things became huge distractions.

Then there is the issue of the story itself: A merciless tale about two Japanese school kids stuck in a vicious cycle of bullying, apparently because they go to school where there aren't actually any teachers around who witness the violence that occurs right in the middle of classrooms, or in gymnasiums where apparently the idea of a CC TV feed is foreign to one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world (you would think protecting children could be a priority in a place like Japan, who needs children to replace their ageing population that is dying off in droves... but nah, why do that? That makes too much sense). I still could see these things happening, as people can be sneaky about hurting others, but seriously... not one teacher, or a student, had the wits about them to say something or do something?

But this story takes place in Japan, where indifference and lack of communication are considered good things, necessary for the preservation of the self. And that kind of leads me to the biggest problem of this entire story: The ending.

Spoiler alert here, read no further if you don't want to know what happens (though I will only briefly talk about it and you could read this and still enjoy, or not enjoy, the ending on your own accord), but seriously, after all the brutality that the main character goes through... he has one conversation with his step-mother, and the entire situation gets fixed in less than a few paragraphs. And the other main character... well, who knows, because the book just... ends. No resolution, no sense of truly seeing a fulfillment in any kind of character arc... nothing. Just... yep, time's up, story's over. And the story could have been over by page 10, if the main character had told his Step-mother what was happening to him in the first place.

Japan has a serious problem with lack of communication skills. I guess in some ways, it makes sense. A friend of mine who is Japanese told me that he believes most Japanese people stop emotionally developing right around Junior High School. After that... it's like they are not permitted to be in touch with their feelings, or to stand up for themselves, because the goal is to "fit in" to society, and not to cause problems for the group. Conforming, if you will. And it's this exact kind of mentality that has been adopted by Japanese people as a whole which leads to things like inhumane bullying, and suicides in record numbers, and senseless attacks by Japanese people who just outburst out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, leading to deaths of innocent people.

If Mieko had even tried to not leave this so open-ended (which I'm not saying is a bad thing to do, per se, but in this case, it's truly not the right decision to make as an author) and just wrap everything up, literally saying in the last chapter or so that "everything is beautiful" and life is fixed and all the emotional and mental scars of the main character are just... over... and who even knows what happened to Kojima.... yeah, that's not how you end a book that is straight depressing for the entire book's length. You need to give the book some kind of purpose, or meaning, or how about even a little redemption? Yet none of that exists in this story... it's a tale about brutal bullying, a possible budding love story that goes nowhere, and then ultimately, one conversation that would be considered a normal thing to do anywhere else in the world except Japan, and the problems are solved, save for one problem: I spent money and time on reading this book, and I can't get that back. I'd say that qualifies as bullying to me too.

I have re-read this book two times since the start of the year and every time I cry a little more.

This is such an emotional and beautiful story that I can’t stop myself from wanting to re-read it.Haven gone through bullying myself when I was in school,this hit different,I felt very emotional about it and really connected with the main character,even though the extent of his bullying was brutal and different from what I had endured,it was still impactful.

An even more interesting decision by the author was not naming the main character and leaving him unnamed.

We can really see how much bullying impacts children and how so many times adults do not realise what is happening or(in most cases) turn a blind eye and do not intervene because “kids are being kids)

Overall I will definitely be reading this book again,it is amazing,deep and impactful.

Ottimo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

„Heaven“ – ein radikaler Blick auf Gewalt, Macht und Würde

Kurzfazit

Mit Heaven (japanisch 2009, englische Übersetzung 2021/2022) legt Mieko Kawakami einen verstörenden, zugleich tief berührenden Roman vor. Er erzählt die Geschichte eines namenlosen 14-jährigen Jungen, der wegen seines Schielens in der Schule systematisch gemobbt wird, und seiner Freundschaft mit Kojima, einem ebenso ausgegrenzten Mädchen. Das Werk verbindet eine schonungslose Darstellung von Gewalt mit philosophischen Reflexionen über Leid, Moral und Menschlichkeit.

Literarische Analyse

Kawakamis Prosa ist präzise, direkt und von einer fast schmerzhaften Klarheit. Gewalt wird nicht beschönigt, sondern detailliert geschildert – zugleich verweigert sich die Autorin jeder plakativen Moral. Stattdessen zeigt sie, wie Opfer ihre Erfahrungen unterschiedlich deuten: Während Kojima Leid als Form der Erhebung verklärt, empfindet der Erzähler es als unerträgliche Erniedrigung. Diese Spannung macht den Kern des Romans aus.

Der Titel Heaven verweist auf ein Bild, das Kojima dem Erzähler schenkt, und dient als Kontrast zu ihrer irdischen Qual – eine fragile Hoffnung auf Schönheit und Transzendenz.

Einbettung in Literatur & Kultur

Mieko Kawakami gilt als eine der bedeutendsten Stimmen der Gegenwartsliteratur Japans. International bekannt wurde sie mit Breasts and Eggs (Natsu monogatari), doch Heaven brachte ihr eine breite Anerkennung im Westen und die Shortlist des International Booker Prize 2022.

Das Thema Mobbing ist in der japanischen Literatur und Gesellschaft stark präsent (vgl. Minoru Morita, Bullying in Japan’s Schools, 2010). Kawakami geht jedoch über eine Sozialkritik hinaus: Ihr Roman reiht sich in eine Tradition existenzialistischer Werke ein, die Gewalt nicht nur als soziales, sondern als philosophisches Problem begreifen – vergleichbar mit Kenzaburō Ōes A Personal Matter oder gar Dostojewskis Reflexionen über Leid.

Trivia & Hintergrund

Der Roman wurde von Sam Bett und David Boyd ins Englische übersetzt, die auch Kawakamis andere Werke ins Englische übertragen haben.

In Japan wurde Heaven 2010 mit dem Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature ausgezeichnet.

Kawakami selbst sagte in Interviews, sie wolle in Heaven zeigen, wie Gewalt „die Essenz dessen verändert, wer wir sind – und wie wir die Welt sehen“.

Fazit

Heaven ist ein schmerzlich schönes, radikal ehrliches Werk, das Gewalt nicht als Spektakel, sondern als menschliche Grundfrage behandelt. Literarisch präzise und philosophisch tief, gehört es zu den stärksten japanischen Romanen der letzten Jahrzehnte – ein Text, der lange nachhallt.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 5 von 5 Sternen

It’s such a great book. It’s a contemporary literature, the message is there, feelings are presented perfectly in the book. I would totally recommend to anyone.

Bardzo ciekawa i wciągająca. Do tego czyta sie bardzo szybko. Mega polecam