Recent Reading: The Third Love by Hiromi Kawakami

This is a story of Riko, a Japanese woman trapped in a marriage with an unfaithful husband. One day a man named Mr Takaoka teaches her how to travel back in time during her dreams. First she travels back to the 27th century, then to the Japanese Middle Ages. Finally she returns to the 21st century for her third love. Toward the end of the book she offers this reflection, which I liked:

This was love, but with a different implication. Today, love suggests an exclusive desire for a specific person, something at once deep and narrow. Back in Heian, however, it was expansive, with permeable borders: people gravitated back and forth and from side to side, now drawing nearer, now drifting apart. To direct one’s love at only one person, as Narihira did with the Gojo princess, was dangerous in Heian. It was too sharp, and too powerful. 

Instead, men and women’s love was gentler and more relaxed. They shared in their sorrows and their joys without ever venturing too close (p. 278).

The Third Love is an unusual ethereal novel that I did not always understand, but one that I definitely enjoyed.

Hardcover and Audible audiobook. 288 pgs. 15 November 2025