I missed this review when it came out in early December, but having come across it now, am putting it up as I have with the other reviews that have come in since The Love We Share Without Knowing has been published.  It’s a good one!  🙂  (Deserving of a smiley face, especially since I have maintained smiley face restraint throughout the other good reviews.)

Barzak, Christopher. The Love We Share Without Knowing. Bantam. 2008. c.290p. ISBN 978-0-553-38564-9. pap. $12. F

Verdict: In this follow-up to his notable debut, One for Sorrow, Barzak offers an otherworldly novel made up of linked short stories set in contemporary Japan; recommended for public and academic libraries.

Background: Barzak’s varied players spin their stories of love, grief, and growing up in first-person narratives that artfully collide with each other to stunning emotional effect. In one narrative thread, a teenage boy lost in Tokyo is led home by an ethereal girl in a fox costume; he later discovers she is dead. The childhood best friend of the fox girl is a casualty of her planned group suicide, but not in the way she anticipates. The author finds rich territory in situating his characters in places steeped in personal loss and letting them fumble toward acceptance of their own frailties.—Anne Garner, NYPL