Why are books worth preserving? What can they teach us? Dinner at the Night Library is about a library with a difference on the outskirts of Tokyo. The books it houses are from the libraries of deceased authors, and are on public display but not for loan. The privately owned library opens only at night, and is staffed by former librarians and others from different sectors of the book industry, who all share a dedication to books but have been damaged in some way by bad experiences in their workplaces.
The novel is composed of five chapters, and is written as a third-person omniscient narrative, tracking the point of view of Otoha Higuchi, the main protagonist, but switching to other major characters when their backstories are revealed.
In the first chapter, Otoha arrives to begin work at the library, having been recruited on Twitter by the owner, a mysterious figure who goes by the handle name Seven Rainbows. Otoha is in her twenties and studied classical literature at university before landing a job at a chain bookstore. She was forced to resign after a scandal over missing money, a false accusation that she nonetheless keeps secret out of shame. Mentally exhausted by her experience, she is eager to please and cultivates a bright personality, similar in some ways to Anne in Anne of Green Gables, to whom manager Yuzuru Sasai compares her because of her broken luggage. This is the first of several references to L.M. Montgomery’s novel.
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