A meditation on coming of age, reading Genzaburo Yoshino's How Do You Live? was an absolute joy. While Hayao Miyazaki's recent film The Boy and the Heron is theoretically based on this story (in fact, in Japan it carries the same name), I found How Do You Live? to be very different yet uttering compelling. Placed in the historical context of a pre-second world war Japan, Yoshino explores the nature of adolescence in this brief novel. 

This story centers around the interactions between a young boy, nicknamed Copper, and his uncle. Through a series of stories of his time in junior high school, Copper learns important life lessons, like how humans are all connected and how to stand by your friends, which his uncle then pontificates on in a journal dedicated to Copper. While this split narrative is effective, I found the time spent with Copper more enjoyable.

Simple yet profound, How Do You Live? is a story about that very question, including philosophical and moral commentary for people of all ages. That said, I'm not exactly sure who this story is for. As Neil Gaiman notes in his forward, it feels like a great read for someone Copper's age, and yet, I'm not sure I would have found it interesting then. The most compelling thing about Copper's character is how he develops an increasingly nuanced view of the world, a topic I might not have been ready to hear about (or, on the other hand, might have felt I already understood), when I was a young teen.