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.
Otoha’s first task is to learn how to catalog book collections bequeathed to the library. She does this under the tutelage of two women, Masako and Ako. Masako, nearly seventy, is a former librarian from a major city library. She qualified in the days before computers, when librarians had to memorize thousands of books and field questions on every imaginable topic. Masako made the transition from card to digital catalogs and is adept with technology as a result. Her life has been shaped by the patriarchal dominance of her father, resulting in her missing the chance to marry because of having to support her mother and younger sister. Her great worry now is that she has lost the ability to concentrate and read. Ako, who is younger, was a single mother running a small family-owned bookstore in an unnamed regional town. She is estranged from her only child, a daughter, and came to work at the library after her business foundered. The women staff gravitate to Ako’s homely dormitory apartment to drink coffee, chat, and watch old movies and Anne of Green Gables, forming a sisterly community that cuts across generations.
Chapter One is titled “Shirobanba Curry,” a dish from a novel by famous Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue. Each of the novel’s five chapters is named after a dish served in the library dining room. The cook is Kinoshita, a former coffee master at a prestigious Ginza coffee shop who was forced to resign after a falling-out with his boss. Kinoshita carries out meticulous research to prepare re-creations of actual dishes from literature. Through this device of meals and chapter titles, the reader learns background information about Japanese history and important literary figures, some of whom are alluded to in other parts of the novel. Chapter Two, for example, “Carrot Rice at Mamaya,” derives its name from a restaurant established by the sister of revered scriptwriter, journalist, and award-winning novelist Kuniko Mukoda.
In this second chapter, popular mass market novelist Tamura Junichiro pays an unannounced visit and demands to see the collection of his contemporary and former friend, literary fiction author Tadasuke Shirakawa. Although the books have not yet been cataloged, Tamura, who is famous for being difficult, insists on examining them within the day, promising to donate money and bequeath his own books if his demand is met. Otoha is drafted to help retrieve the books from storage in a remote location, and the team delivers in time. When the irascible Tamura examines them in the presence of Masako, who is unafraid to stand up to him, he is relieved to discover that his colleague Shirakawa has collected all of Tamura’s works. Overwhelmed with relief at this discovery (for he has suffered from an inferiority complex), he becomes repentant and apologetic for his behavior. Thus the team’s efforts result in their securing future donations and the collection of a popular author for the library.
Chapter Three, “Cucumber Sandwiches in Anne of Green Gables,” is set a month after Otoha’s arrival. She has settled in and become particularly friendly with the cheerful Minami Enokida, who is closest in age. Minami is a qualified librarian who was pushed between one temporary three-month contract after another working in another city’s libraries. She has been recruited to work at the Night Library after a tweet she wrote about this exploitative system of employment went viral. In this chapter the discovery of a book on the shelves without a library stamp raises questions about security and possible tampering with the collections. Otoha and Masako are drafted to conduct a cross-referenced search to eliminate all possibilities, but they find nothing conclusive.
Also in this chapter, Sasai consults staff about their opinions on accepting the collection of a recently deceased and extremely popular author, Mizuki Takashiro. To do so would create more pressure on the staff as a result of the attention it would inevitably draw from fans and the media. The author is so mysterious, they have never been seen in public, and even their gender is unknown. As a die-hard fan, Otoha is eager for an opportunity to learn more. She is delighted at the decision to accept the offer, and the staff members move quickly to collect the books, in accordance with the wishes of Takashiro’s sister. Otoha accompanies colleague Naoto Tokai in a mini-truck to collect the books, and on the way, he tutors her in etiquette appropriate for the situation.
In Chapter Four, “Seiko Tanabe’s Sardines and Tofu Lees,” the library team arrive at Takashiro’s penthouse condominium to discover books crammed into every possible space. Packing them all promises to be an enormous task. Otoha is curious to learn what she can about her idol, but the sister prevents her looking too closely at personal items that might give anything away. However, Otoha comes away with the impression that Takashiro is not dead, and suspects the sister of being the author. Exhausted, the team gathers in the dining room back at the library for a meal of sardines and sake lees. This combination frequently comes up in the works of Seiko Tanabe (an author who is incidentally nicknamed “the L.M. Montgomery of Japan”).
Tokai’s background is also revealed in Chapter Four. He learned the used book business after a part-time job during high school led to his making the acquaintance of an antiquarian bookseller in Tokyo, who became his mentor. Tokai opened his own specialist used bookstore while still in his twenties, but came to work in the Night Library after hearing that the collection of an author with whom he had close ties was to be housed there. He tracked down the library owner in order to be involved with handling this collection.
The mystery of the unstamped books also continues in this chapter, but is solved by the joint efforts of Sasai, Minami, and Otoha. The perpetrator is Kimiko Ninomiya, an elegant, older patron who was once the mistress of author Kosuke Takagoi, whose collection is housed in the library. Kimiko freely admits to replacing and even stealing books. She subscribes to a view—which had been prevalent among the elite prior to World War Two— that books should be for everybody and in continual circulation regardless of ownership. This incident deeply shocks the whole staff, and the owner gives instructions for the library to shut down while a general stocktaking is carried out, to be followed by a month-long paid vacation for everybody. Otoha fears that the temporary closure will become permanent.
In the final chapter, “Yoko Mori’s Recipe for Canned Fish,” Sasai’s life history is revealed, along with the identity of the owner, who is his maternal aunt. Sasai’s parents died when he was young, and family wrangling over his custody had kept him estranged from maternal relatives, but his aunt fought to become his guardian after tracking him down in the rough boarding school where he had been dumped Although she was a perpetual traveler with no permanent abode, she gave Sasai the option of settling down to go to school. He chose to travel with the world with her, and so for his education she had him read, teaching him how to enjoy reading and understand the educational value of books. They settled for a while in Hawaii after Sasai became depressed as a result of childhood trauma, then returned to Japan so he could finish high school and go to university. His aunt’s wealth originated from her personal and professional relationship with an aristocratic Arab, whom she had met as a young woman at language school in Italy. He also became her backer in the Night Library.
Sasai’s aunt decided to establish the Night Library as a means of paying homage to the past, and to counter the arrogance of contemporary attitudes that always perceive the present to be more progressive and better than the past, in willful ignorance of great stores of knowledge in many disciplines. Her nephew has supported her in this project as a means of repaying her kindness to him. He is nevertheless aware that she is becoming increasingly erratic and eccentric in her old age, and that at some point he may even have to protect the library from her.
Otoha figures out the truth the night before the closure, when the staff are enjoying a final dinner together in the dining room. While investigating several things that puzzle her, she realized that Ms. Kobayashi, the uncommunicative cleaner, is actually the owner. Otoha finds her scrubbing the toilets, and joins her in cleaning them to make her case for keeping the library open. Although Ms Kobayashi will not make any promises, Otoha returns to the party satisfied. She knows things cannot last forever, and that the lack of permanence is what makes this time beautiful. However, she and the others who work there have each in their own way been able to find peace in working at the library. It has given them community, reaffirmed their faith in the value of books, and sometimes helped resolve outstanding issues in their personal lives.
Dinner At the Night Library is a plot-driven, charming literary mystery, filled with quirky characters who are steeped in Japanese literary history and culture, and emblematic of the challenges facing the book world today. Both informative and entertaining, it is a contemplation on the purpose of work, why books matter, and a cheer of encouragement to everyone who believes in their value. Ultimately, it is a paean to reading and the relevance of books and literary culture through the ages—past, present, and future.