What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts (Transworld)
Before Christmas I took part in an online bookish Secret Santa run by the brilliant Big Green Bookshop . To take part you paid for an unknown book and then sent Simon an email saying what type of book you liked (and didn't like) and he found a surprise book for you and a wrapped parcel containing a fancy tea, a bar of chocolate and a book arrived before Christmas. If that wasn't enough work he also spent time to match you up with another person with similar tastes to create new bookish friends.
My parcel came with a lovely bar of Green and Blacks chocolate and inside was this book - and it ticked soooooo many of my boxes - translated fiction, set in Japan, about libraries and about books.
It was another perfect read for while I was poorly.
Like lots of the books in this genre it is more a collection of short stories that are connected by either a location or by chance encounters with other characters. In this case the main point of connection is a library that runs from a community centre that also offers lots of other activities. The characters are all visiting the centre for other things but end up in the library where they are helped to find the books they need and then also recommended a 'wild card' book which at first seems to make no sense to them...
As is to be expected in books like this the books all help to change the characters' lives and the book is a love letter to both the library and the book.
I've now read a lot of this type of Japanese fiction and every time I think that I've reached saturation point another good read comes along although I'm not totally sure how I missed this one when it was first published a few years back.
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