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Mar 04, 2025 By Frank Valish

The Tokyo Suite is the English-language debut, translated from the Portuguese, by Brazilian writer Giovani Madalosso. The novel follows two stories: one of a nanny who kidnaps the young girl who is her charge, leaving by bus and changing the child’s name in attempt to start a life anew, and the other of the girl’s mother and the double life she is leading at home.

The nanny’s backstory is explored, lending some insight as to why she kidnapped the child, and the mother is engaging in an illicit affair with another woman behind her husband’s back. Chapters alternate between the two protagonists.

The novel, a relatively brief 208 pages, hews closely to the two main storylines while only giving enough background information for a semblance of context. We never seem to realize all the factors that explain the decisions of the two women. Suffice it to say that they are in vastly different places in their own lives and personal journeys. And frankly, although the novel wraps up with a bow by the end, little feels resolved. Ultimately, The Tokyo Suite explores what it means to search for oneself, sometimes through unsavory means, thus too examining what we are willing to put on the line to find out who we in fact are. (www.europaeditions.com)

Author rating: 7/10