By Maureen Tai, 16 February 2022

Sometimes you encounter a story of such ingenuity, warmth and wit that you decide, on the spot, to expand the categories on your book review blog to include “Young Adult” books so that you can rave about it. Colorful by Eto Mori (ages 14 +), translated from the Japanese by Jocelyne Allen and originally published in 1998, is, figuratively speaking, the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, and the first young adult book to be reviewed on our blog.

The novel opens with the narrator – a nameless, shapeless soul with no memory of his prior life – discovering that he has just won the lottery.

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