Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel

Title: Dinner at the Night Library

Author: Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel  

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Scribner/Simon and Schuster

Published: 16^th September 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Price: $29.99

Synopsis: The Night Library is no ordinary library. Within it are found the rarest and most unusual collections – the books of deceased famous writers:
the books they wrote;
the books that inspired them;
the books they loved.

All Otoha Higuchi wants to do is work with books. However, the exhausting nature of her work at a chain bookstore, combined with her paltry salary and irritating manager quickly bring reality crashing down around her.

She is on the verge of quitting when she receives a message from somebody calling themselves ‘Seven Rainbows’, inviting her to apply for a job at a library with no name, a place referred to simply as ‘The Night Library’.

After successfully passing the interview, Otoha arrives at The Night Library and her sunny personality immediately earns her comparisons with Anne of Green Gables. For the very first time she feels she has found her place in the world. As well as a treasure trove of books, the library houses a group of likeminded literary misfits, including a legendary chef who prepares incredible meals for the library’s employees at the end of each day.

Together they embark on a series of bookish adventures. But when the library’s mysterious owner decides to temporarily close the library, Otoha and her friends fear that it may not reopen and that the peace they have found there will forever be lost to them.

Is their friendship and their faith in the value of books strong enough to save it? And what will remain if it isn’t?

Dinner at the Night Library is a heartwarming literary mystery translated by Philip Gabriel, the translator of IQ84 and The Travelling Cat Chronicles, filled with quirky characters, Japanese culture and mouthwatering meals. It asks why books matter and offers a cheer of encouragement to everybody who believes they do. Ultimately, it is a paean to reading and the relevance of books through the ages—past, present, and future.

~*~

Otoha Higuchi is starting a new chapter in her life near Tokyo. She’s always wanted to work with books, much to her parents’ disappointment. But working at the local chain bookstore has left her burnt out, and she’s been forced to leave over something she had no control over. One day, she receives a message from a mysterious person called Seven Rainbows with a job offer to work in the Night Library.

And so, begins Otoha’s new life, working overnight in a library filled with various collections from Japanese authors that have been bequeathed to the facility. It’s managed by a man called Sasai, and filled with a range of men and women in various stages of life who organise and maintain the collection for the few that visit it. Everyone who works there keeps comparing her to Anne of Green Gables, which becomes an ongoing theme and reference point between Otoha and her new friends and work colleagues. But there seem to be strange things going on. Books are appearing that haven’t been processed properly, despite Otoha and her colleagues cataloguing everything they’ve been given. There’s a detective hanging around all the time, and Otoha is faced with various assumptions about what she can do based on her gender and age.

It’s a bit of a mysterious place, because nobody is evert quite sure what is really going on, and there is a sense that somebody working there knows more than everyone is letting on. And somehow, the dinner served each night matches the books they have been reading or talking about. Much of the book focuses on what they do each night, so it felt quiet and contemplative with the mystery bubbling along in the background. However, I did read this in translation, and as someone who hasn’t read many translations I have read them carefully. I am learning about a different culture but also trying to read between the lines in case something has been lost in translation so to speak. Because not every language will always have equivalent words to another, and sometimes, the closest word to what it is meant is likely used.

That said, it’s an intriguing, slow and meditative story that feels very interior.  Things roll along at a slow pace within the library, where everything is about the library. And about how we see people or make judgements about them based on preconceptions or assumptions about what people can do. Novels can reflect various attitudes that might be common amongst cultures, in different countries or even amongst different groups within countries and cultures. They show the people who hold these views, the people these views shock, and highlight that there are ways to prove people wrong. It cleverly tackles all these issues, and brings different generations and beliefs together united by a common cause or interest. In this case, the library.

Different elements are woven together, and things are revealed quite slowly and deliberately to pull the reader along. Even when it feels like not a lot is happening, something is happening. It means that the tiny things that might feel irrelevant become relevant later on.  Dinner at the Night Library feels like the kind of novel can be read on two levels. One is quite simplistic as a story that is just about the people Otoha works with at the night library and the joys and challenges they face. But dig a little deeper, there is a mystery that feels a bit hidden. Like something you have to dig around for amongst everything else. This clever way of writing the story, as it can engage readers in many ways. Books like this can give people things to ponder, or help them see the world and what they are doing in different ways. It’s an intriguing book that also acts as a love letter to reading, readers, libraries and books with interesting characters and unique ways of seeing the world.