Published 16th March by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
It’s our world, but decades into the future…
An ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. There are two superpowers and a digital Cold War, but all conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be…
Except for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change for him when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia…
But Neotnia hides a secret of her own – a secret that will turn John’s unhappy life upside down. A secret that will take them from the neon streets of Tokyo to Hiroshima’s tragic past to the snowy mountains of Nagano.
A secret that reveals that this world is anything ordinary – and it’s about to change forever…
***********
Welcome to a future where cars drive themselves, and robots work tirelessly to tend to (almost all) our needs. In other resepcts, human lives seem to have changed little: the corporate world rumbles on in its greedy fashion, and the shadow of conflict between superpowers looms over all - quite literally in fact, as evidence of the technological Cold War between America and China looks down on the world from the sky above.
In Tokyo, young American computing engineer John is engaged in talks with the largest of the Japanese tech giants to sell his quantum designs. He hopes this will make him enough money to care for his troubled mother, and pay for the surgery he craves to make him 'normal'. In the meantime, he has a lot of time on his hands between corporate wrangling to wander the streets of Tokyo, taking in the sights and sounds that are so different from the small town existence he is used to back home.
One evening, John finds himself drawn to a tiny cafe, where he is mesmerised by a young Japanese waitress called Neotnia, a quirky little dog called Inu with a bizarre spherical head, and a sullen former sumo wrestler who goes by the name of Goeido. A repeating phrase echoes at the edge of John's consciousness, and he returns again and again to this little cafe. He yearns for Neotnia to turn her beautiful eyes and enigmatic smile his way.
John has always felt a loner, unwilling to let his guard down, but Neotnia awakens deep feelings within him, and he gradually opens up his heart to her. As their tentative friendship grows, Neotnia decides she can trust him with her secrets in return. She confides to John that she desperately needs his help. What Neotnia has to tell him turns John's world upside down, and opens his eyes to possibilities he thought impossible. To save Neotnia they need find answers, which leads them on a quest across Japan from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and onwards to the mountains of Nagano. But will what they find there be a truth they want to hear?
As in all beautifully crafted speculative novels, it is really hard to sum up what makes this book so magical - especially without giving away its secrets, but here we go...
This story starts with a slowburn that lulls you into a false sense of security, or is it insecurity, when a damaged, socially awkward young man finds himself alone in Tokyo with a lot of time on his hands. John is certain of the direction his life is taking, but a chance meeting with a young waitress and her unusual companions sets him on a path that makes him question everything he thought he knew.
At its heart, this is an unconventional love story. The relationship that grows between John and Neotnia is truly moving, and it goes through a series of trials and tribulations in true epic romance style - with a twist or two! The team they form with Inu and Goeido is a delight. There is subtle humour and touching sentimentality, but also a significant whack of pain and poignancy as you delve into their stories, and through them Grothaus explores what it means to be human.
It is a discomfiting world that Grothaus imagines here - one it is all too easy to see coming to pass. There is a lot in these pages about rapid growth in technology, how it can be subverted for nefarious means, and the capacity of humankind to inflict harm on one another. At the same time, it explores the more esoteric concepts of connection, purpose, and the things that make us the same. This is thought provoking stuff.
Now we come to the intricacies of the writing. There are so many poetically written scenes that linger on looks, smiles, touch, and almost imperceptible shifts in atmosphere. Grothaus has a bewitching ability to stop time in a moment, and then run seemlessly into action with unstoppable momentum. He enhances the impact of his scenes through deliciously detailed descriptions of weather and environment too.
This is a surprising and affecting novel, with a powerful emotional core. It combines cleverly contrived science fiction elements with a whisper of the spiritual, and is flooded with compelling drama that holds you fast. What masterful story telling.
Beautiful Shining People is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
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