The Passengers on the Hankyu Line

Arikawa, known for healing fiction like The Travelling Cat Chronicles, offers a set of interlaced short encounters that take place across six months on the Hankyu Line, a commuter rail that connects the towns of Takarazuka and Nishinomiya in a mountainous region of Japan. The novel moves along gently, first set in each of the stations along the Hankyu Line as the train travels toward Nishinomiya and then looping back to follow the train to Takarazuka. Along the way, pairs of characters cross paths, engage with each other, and learn life lessons; the framing device of the train’s round-trip journey gives readers “before” and “after” views of many of these encounters. On the train are Yuki and Masashi, who first meet in a library; a grandmother and her granddaughter, both very interested in dogs; a jilted would-be-bride; and multiple college and high school students finding both themselves and love. Added to the mix are the characters inhabiting the station towns themselves. Arikawa’s stories, at once small-scale and universal, offer soft reminders to be kind and self-aware. Powell’s translation creates a work that is silky in its pacing and formally constructed. The book is augmented by line illustrations (not seen by LJ) of each station.