The House of the Lost on the Cape (2024)

My name is David. April was my wife. I lost her about three days before this book arrived for her as an early reviewer. Early reviews were her hobby, not mine, but here is our final review for this site.

This book arrived as an early reviewer copy for my wife, three days after she died. I was in NO mood to read a story about three generations of lost women overcoming grief together in Japan. But after the first couple of chapters, I found myself taking comfort in the narrative. The translation is at an appropriate middle-school level, and the suspense of the plot is not overwhelming. But the author and translator do an excellent job of conveying the wonder and creative forms of the rural Japanese Jizō, kappa, and henge spirits that we came to love during the years we lived there.

I consider this book to be a gift, both from the author, but also from the native spirits of Japan, who sensed that this was the book I needed now to remind me that, in time, grief is joined by opportunity and new found families.

this was an utterly lovely magical found family book, in which an orphaned girl, a woman fleeing an abusive marriage, and an old grandmother with no immediate family of her own are brought together after the devastating Japanese tsunami of 2011. They move to an abandoned house on a lovely, secluded cape, and become a family. But the tsunami has unleashed a magical danger, trapped for centuries, and now it is up to them to stop it from fracturing their fragile peace, and destroying their community. Led by the grandma, who knows all sorts of Japanese magical beings and enlists their aid, their journey of personal healing becomes entwined with supernatural conflict. A must read for those who love mg fantasy.

"...Even though The House of the Lost is a children’s book, Kashiwaba doesn’t pull any punches. She doesn’t hide the fact that 3/11 was a traumatic experience for the children—and adults—in Tohoku. The town of Kitsunezaki is in ruins. Shops have been abandoned. Shopping districts have turned into meadows in just a few short months. Abandoned pets are becoming a problem. Roads are 'cracked, ribbed like a washboard, or passable only on one side'. The children, too, are traumatized. Some of them, including Hiyori, have been rendered unable to speak...

But in Kashiwaba’s telling, the greatest trauma for the children was being left behind, not just by those who died, but by those who left by necessity or choice. Where other adults might assume children might be more upset about material hardship, Kashiwaba’s focus on loneliness shows real empathy for her audience. This is how Kashiwaba describes Hiyori’s elementary school:

The students in their class… 'had decreased by about half this spring. Some students had moved to cities so that their parents could look for work. Others were staying in shelters farther inland, and still others had moved in with their relatives in different towns. They all said that they were only temporarily evacuated but no one knew for sure if they would actually return to Kitsunezaki. The students who departed were anxious, and the students who stayed felt left behind.'

The students and members of their community fear being forgotten. The novel’s climax plays on this fear, and it is truly frightening—even to an adult reader. A monster impersonates the loved ones Kitsunezaki’s residents most miss or fear. The döppelgangers tell the townspeople that 'having dreams for the future doesn’t make sense' in a town like theirs—and tempt them to throw themselves in the sea. (Fortunately, Yui and Hiyori save the day with some supernatural helpers.)...

Events like these and other topics covered in The House of the Lost might surprise English-language readers in a story for children, especially given the novel’s presentation. Its tone is generally light. The volume is lovingly illustrated by Yukiko Saito and presented in a soft water color cover...

...The centrality of folklore in the story is both a tribute to the Tohoku Region and an opportunity for Kashiwaba to once again explore the story-within a story device that was one of Temple Alley Summer’s most notable features. It’s also a chance for Ugadawa to show off her skill as a children’s translator, incorporating new vocabulary and cultural content for young readers while skillfully weaving in stealth glosses so nothing is beyond their reach..."

Full review at https://asianreviewofbooks.com/conten...

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I also discuss The House of the Lost on the Cape in my podcast episode 26 on Translating Japanese to English
tinyurl.com/rjlep25:

“Udagawa left a huge number of Japanese words and cultural references [in her translation] and explained them with stealth glosses. . . . The technique provides a [lot] of information about Japan in general and life in the Tohoku region in particular and about Japanese folklore—it’s part of what I liked best about the book.”

In the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami, a young girl and two women create a new family unit in a small house near the sea. Ancient predators rise up from the disturbed shrines. Magical protectors amass to keep them at bay.

Popsugar24: #35 - A book with magical realism

52 Book Club24: #5 - Magical Realism

It got more interesting towards the end, but the first half was tough to get through

2023 Cybils Elementary Middle Grade Speculative Fiction nominee

This book was aimed right at me. A newly orphaned girl is saved by a runaway wife during the 2011 earthquake in Japan, and their found family in increased by a strangely competent grandmother. Most grandmothers are competent, of course, but this one is also friends with all the spirits and deities of the land. And as the woman and the girl slowly process their grief, the three of them notice that an unfriendly creature has been released by the tsunami that destroyed the town.

There are lots of details of living in Japan, there is traumatic muteness handled sympathetically, there is dancing and flute playing, there are evil red-eyed demons, there are ghost children, there's story telling from grandmother, there's everything I could want in a story, and all told in a clear but not condescending voice that conveys both the love the family has for each other and the pain they are dealing with and their courage in facing it.

Un très chouette livre que je suis heureuse d’avoir découvert. Ce n’est pas un style que j’ai l’habitude de lire, mais j’ai trouvé ça très lent, doux et poétique. C’est une jolie histoire entre une orpheline, une femme qui fuit son mari violent et une mamie. Trois femmes qui se retrouvent grâce au hasard et forment une famille.
J’ai adoré découvrir les différents contes de la grand-mère, ainsi que le côté fantastique avec les yokaïs et les kappas.
Si vous aimez la littérature japonaise, et que vous avez aimé La cité des brumes oubliées de la même autrice, je ne peux que vous recommander cette douce lecture.

THEMES :
•conte social
•contes japonais
•yôkai
•found family

Fantasy with heart—three words are all I need to describe this tale. These pages not only let dreams fly but set friendship, family, and determination against demons inside and out.

Hiyori, an orphan, was on her way to meet and live with an uncle, whom she knew nothing about, when the earthquake hit. Alone in a gym crowded with survivors, she meets Yui and Kiwa. Yui's running away from her abusive husband, while Kiwa is a cheerful grandmother with more than a few secrets. The three women bond, especially after a tsunami wipes out everything around them. Under Kiwa's suggestion, they head together to a small town and a house on a cape. It's almost like paradise until something evil begins to slaughter the small animals in the area. Kiwa seems to know more than she's letting on, but Hiyori needs to learn to overcome more than this physical monster. First, she must defeat the one in her heart.

This read has been translated from Japanese and is rich with the culture, myth, and life style. It takes place after the disaster of 2011 and does an amazing job at diving into several problems people faced at that time, while swimming effortlessly in the realm of myth and fantasy mixed into the modern world. While it exposes the tough issue which Yui faces as an abused wife escaping from her husband, it only touches it lightly enough to give her character depth. I was afraid this aspect might pull it out of the middle grade category, but it didn't. Hiyori keeps it grounded right along with the wonders surrounding the elderly Kiwa, whose secrets invite to impossible realms while maintaining the warmth of a grandmotherly embrace.

After starting with the tension of the earthquake and tsunami, the tale allows the three characters to settle in with each other, but it's never boring. Not only do the grandmother's tales keep it interesting, but Kappas, Jizo, and other creatures add a whimsical atmosphere to counter the more evil ones. In this way, it reminds a bit of Spirited Away. All along, the inner struggles of, especially, Hiyori and her past come to light. Together, it makes an engaging read, which will have readers wishing they could move to that thatched house on the cape themselves.

I received an ARC and understand why this has been turned into a well-received film.

In 2011, in Japan, Kiwa Yamana was on her way to live in a nursing home in Kitsunezaki. Yurie, a young woman fleeing an unhappy marriage to a possessive man, gets off the train in Kitsunezaki for lunch. On that same train is a young girl, Moeka, on her way to live with an uncle she doesn't know, since her parents have died. She and older woman accompanying her also get off the train for lunch. Then, a tsunami hits. Yurie rescues Moeka and they make their way to the Kitsunezaki community center, where other survivors have gathered. There, to Yurie's great surprise, she is warmly greeted by an older woman who claims Yurie as her daughter Yui, and Moeka as her granddaughter Hiyori--and somehow, even though they all know perfectly well they are not related, they find themselves happily living together in a small house on the cape near Kitsunezaki. Soon, though, Yui and Hiyori--who has not spoken since her parents' death--discover that Obachan is a most unusual woman with most unusual--and mythological--friends. Friends who stand ready to come to the aid of Kitsunezaki, because it seems an age-old enemy has been set free, and all the people of the town stand in grave danger once again.

At the start of this book I was unsure whether it was for children or adults, since it started off with someone from the nursing home, and asking whether an elderly resident needed help with the toilet, etc., which you don't usually get in children's books! That's one of the things that makes this book so interesting, though, representing a different culture and different way of storytelling than what we are used to. It will fit right in with the current trendy genre of mythological fantasy, though none of the human characters are descended from any mythological characters, which is different. The descriptions are wonderful, and kids who love all things Japanese will feel right at home, and others will learn about something new to them. The characters are sympathetic, and with them being all different ages, perhaps this is an all-ages book rather than strictly a book for children. I love a good found family story, so I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The illustrations were especially helpful when I wasn't familiar with particular beings from Japanese mythology.

I'm on a roll with picking up books by authors whose previous works I read, I didn't enjoy much. But lucky for me, this one is a huge step up in terms of themes and story.

It begins with the Tohoku earthquake, where a woman running away from an abusive husband, a girl who lost both her parents, and a mysterious old lady are brought together. They end up living in an abandoned house on a cape. The story then unfolds into a glorious mixture of folklore and recovery. I will say I found the way the three of them ended up living together to be a little forced, but with what it leads to I can forgive it. I really liked the way that the story explored the importance of embracing all the emotions that we have and not just turning away from the ones that are more difficult to deal with. As a children's book, I found this to be handled well as Hiyori tries to learn how to open up. The mystical yokai, gods, and spirits that make their appearances are a lot of fun, and while they don't get any character development they successfully add a lot of fun and magic to the story. I really enjoyed how Hiyori handled their appearances much better than Yui did. The villain of the story is pretty basic, but I think it works as the tale is exploring how we relate to places in times of trauma and the evil oni and snake want to remove the people from the land.

This is the story of three survivors of a Japanese earthquake and tsunami. A child who has lost her parents and who has been rendered speechless, a young woman escaping an abusive marriage and an older woman who is just a little bit magical. They join together after they are displaced by the tsunami and become family to each other. They find an abandoned cottage of a cliff and set to fixing it up as their new home. They come to love their new lives and their new village with it's welcoming people. But something is amiss. The tsunami has caused a rift in the spiritual world where it has released the evil Sea Snake spirit by washing away the seal on the shrine created to keep it locked away from the world. The Sea Snake Spirit is greedy and wishes to do harm to humanity. Obachan, the mystical grandmother, Yui, the adoptive mother and Hiyori the traumatized child band together with magic and mysticism to fight back this evil for themselves as well as their adoptive family and village.

The House of the Lost on the Cape is a story of blended Japanese fantasy (think mystical beings) and humanity and how they can coexist in harmony and help each other when evil attacks. A blend of Japanese folk lore with real day problems creates an exciting and moving tale. Highly recommended.

One interesting thing about this book is that it was originally published serially (in 2014-2015) in what I think was a local newspaper in the area hit by the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. What a different experience it would be to read this story parsed out over the months!
The beginning chapters are about 2 different characters whose lives are all upended by the 2011 tsunami. They meet while fleeing/ sheltering from the disaster. They make a found family and protect each other. And then… things take a turn into magic and yokai terrritory. Obachan starts telling folk tales, and we start to think she may know more about the truth in these tales than one might think.
The story gets a little tense, but this is a great middle grade story about getting through trauma and standing up for who and what you love. We support each other and try to stop the doom spiraling. It doesn’t minimize the devastation, but it shows a way through. With (spoiler) magical creatures.

"Clearly weary and glad to be back, she murmured, 'We're home.' In that moment, the house...."

This children's book is all about finding your home regardless of country or tradition. Kashiwaba is well-known in her country for her fiction that intertwines folktales of her country with a classic narrative. This one is no different. Centering on the women who form a "family" after a tsunami hits the coast of Japan, it follows their lives as they establish a home together and new lives only to be challenged by evil spirits. Good and bad where good when. Appropriate for any young reader. Beautifully translated. The Kindle edition includes black and white illustrations which also translate well into digital format.

I was happy to like this one as I tried to read book that was award the ALA's Batchelder Award, "Temple Alley Summer" (2022) and frankly, could not get through it as I felt it read in a very stilted manner.

Juvenile Fantasy. Story takes place in contemporary Japan, coastal town hit by devastating tsunami. A woman from an urban city runs away from an abusive husband. An orphaned girl, who lost both parents in an auto accident, is taken by train to the coastal town to live with an uncle she has never met. She is unable to speak due to her recent loss. The woman and girl arrive in the town just prior to the earthquake. They seek refuge in one another’s company. A mysterious grandmother, Obichan, arrives at shelter and states this is her daughter in law and granddaughter. Story includes Japanese culture and elements of folklore. Helpful and evil creatures. Will the town overcome the evil or succumb to it. Will the three become a forever family? Recommend Grades 4-6.

I am reading this book thru an audio book that I happened to found on libby randomnly while I was searching for the books to be borrowed and I am glad that I did!
I love how the heartwarming and magical the story is ✨.
I love how kiwa grandma is keeping her ability to see all the magical creature alive while other adults only had it while they were a child
I also love how grandma took two stranger out of nowhere, let them stay and treated them as her own family!
From this story we learned how to become our newself and overcome our past (refers to hiyori and yui)
We also learned about the mystical creature and lore in Japan such as zashiki warashi, white snake, kappa and the legendary house that look after lost travelers (Mayoiga)
I also love the twist in the end of the story!

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Beautiful story of a woman fleeing an abusive marriage and a young girl who are brought together after a disaster. They find themselves forming a new family with Kiwa. Kiwa takes on the role of Grandmother. She tells tales of the legends. Soon Yui and Hiyori find that the legends are real. They work together to save their new home.

The physical book is what I've heard call a square binding. The spine is flat, not curved. I'm not sure what I think about that. It seems odd. The cover is beautiful, but they have one of those "permanent stickers" on the front which I hate.

What a heartwarming book this is. A magical middle grade fantasy with folklore creatures, lovely family bonds, perseverance and just a lot of hearts. Its simple yet run deep with the meaning of loss from traumatic events of earthquake and tsunami. Its the comfort found between strangers as they become a found family amidst the adversity. Also the uniqueness of fantastical beings and supernaturals that lives alongsid them. I love this book for how incredibly well written it is and the illustrations are beautiful too.

This book is a perfect companion for those who love slice of life, slightly magical books, suited to young readers.

Thank you to Edelweiss and publisher for the e-arc

This book begins during the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Three generations, a grandmother, a young woman and a young girl come together to become a family and live together. A number of mythical creatures come to their aid as challenges face the trio.
A really wonderful story, with charming illustrations that upper elementary or MS students would love.

Kashiwaba won the Batchelder Award, honorable mention for this book to name one of many awards. Last year she won the Batchelder Award, first place for Temple Alley Summer.

Outstanding.

A lovely book, with both intense themes (tsunami, loss) and a remarkably gentle found family situation. I absolutely see the connection to Spirited Away (based on one of the author's other books) in the storytelling -- here, the fantastical is every day, the legends are real, and sometimes that's frightening, and sometimes that's just beyond our understanding. Beautiful story about finding refuge and creating home.

At first I was really into it because the book dives into Japanese mythological creatures and even has illustrations. But as I kept reading I started to get bored. The story just felt too flat.

Hiyori, don’t look so stricken! You are not a saint, and your feelings are your feelings. You can’t do a thing about them. Telling ourselves not to have dark thoughts is what never works,

Very charming story with heart, imagination and cozy. I listened to to this as an audiobook, and I thought the narrator and translation were excellent. Specifically, I appreciated that there were still words in Japanese, with just enough to provide context and respect the beauty of the language. Finally, I really enjoy folklore and mythology in general and this book had some charming integration of Japanese folklore!

As a all things Japanese enthusiast, I enjoyed seeing some of the mythological creatures in action, the setting which I could literally picture at times since I had been there and the quaint terms of endearment. Random fact, I call my dog ‘Leia-chan’ since we got her in Japan. In terms of audience, I do think it’s really an upper primary and early middle grade book. Its slow building adventure is something to savour.

The story delves into the profound depths of loss following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, with its pretty prose and illustrations. The House of the Lost on the Cape beautifully portrays the solace discovered in unlikely soil, as three strangers forge a makeshift family amidst the ruins. Not only the stories is heartwarming, with its magical creatures and supernatural elements, adding a touch of the realms to the reality. Truly a captivating book to read in such ardor mood :)

A book for middle graders dealing with the topic of grief, domestic abuse and fear of the unknown — while introducing many aspects of Japanese folklore and the tragic topic of the Tsunami of 2011 — the book was written tastefully and could become a children’s classic .

3,5/5

Une histoire mignonne, par l'auteure à l'origine Chihiro. La trame narrative était assez simple, j'ai aimé la naïveté et la bienveillance des personnages, ainsi que de découvrir toutes les créatures merveilleuses et yokai du Japon.

I enjoyed this until the evil fantasy creature showed up about 40% of the way. Then I quit to the ending.

3.5

Bof

I enjoyed reading about the folklore of the Japanese culture. This community hit by the tsunami was so resilient.

If you love Studio Ghibli films, read this!