All of Us Strangers [Movie Tie-In]

A Novel

Paperback, 208 pages

English language

Published May 21, 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-341153-1
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3 stars (1 review)

Screenwriter Harada is disconnected from the world. Lonely and jaded, he’s drifted apart from his son and is dismissive when approached with gestures of friendship, including from a lonely and mysterious tenant who lives in his mostly empty apartment building.

One night, when Harada returns to the dilapidated downtown district of Tokyo where he grew up, he meets a man who looks exactly like his long-dead father. And so begins Harada’s ordeal, thrust into a reality where his parents appear to be alive at the exact age they had been when they died many years earlier.

Deeply felt, searching, and profound, All of Us Strangers is a beautiful meditation on loss and the connection between familial love and romantic love.

2 editions

Gays make everything better

3 stars

I wanted to read the book before watching “All of Us Strangers”. The protagonist is straight and it’s set in Japan. The dialogue and dynamic with his parents was old-timey; not in a good way. But I suppose this was the author’s way of telegraphing the difference between past/present/the amorphous events of this story. Had to read the ending a few times to get it. The movie is an improvement, which is a rare thing.