Watersong is a novel I really enjoyed! It is a very fresh story filled with sadness in a real atmospheric mystery. The story transports us to the past and its trauma, to other stories, to musical eerie dreams, to myths and the complexity of moving on from trauma.

Having read before the author’s previous novel : The perfect Life of Miwako Sumida, I can confidently say that I really like the author and the world she takes us to. I recommend this novel highly.

Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for letting me read a copy in advance.

This unusual novel has a striking and evocative premise - a man learning about secrets in his partner's life, and questioning what it is he really knew - plus where is she now?

Unquestionably evocative, the tension is more emotional than action-based, with Shouji delving into a world he did not expect to have to, while being mindful of his own safety and what it all means for his future. I loved that each of the women in the story were connected in complicated ways. The narrative voice, tempo, and structure all delightful and perfectly in line with the story's focus on dreams and faulty memories.

I had absolutely no idea what this book was about when I started reading it and once I read the blurb I was really intrigued. I just finished reading it and oh my gosh did I love it.

the writing in this book is so dreamy but is also concise, which is an absolute pleasure to read. The dialogue was wonderful, the characters were flawed without being irritating, and they communicated in a very human way, without feeling like unnecessary miscommunication.

I honestly absolutely adored everything about this story, I was hooked from the very first page, and it felt like there was so much to enjoy. I loved all of the characters and i feel like we got to spend time with all of them. There was so much going on but it was easy to understand and the flashbacks were written better than in any other book I've ever read.

I can't decide if I'm completely sold on the ending but the book itself was such an absolute joy to read that I can overlook it.

4.5 stars out of 5 (I think it could be a 5/5 once I've thought about it more)

i really wanted to love this having liked another novel by goenawan but the way the hero is presented to us as this saviour while the women are kind of helpless....nope. it was a bit too reminiscent of murakami for my taste.

One of those rare books I can't make my mind up.

I obviously likes it, because I finished reading this book in one day, author had few interesting catches.

However there was too much familiarity, begining reminded me a little of #BeforeTheCoffeeGetsCold and the end was definitely inspired by Murakamis book #SouthFromTheBorder (my favourite book by the author). They are just my feeling, everyone interprets stories their own way. 😌

In this case familiarity wasn't that bad. Author describes a lot of Japanese and Singaporean food/drinks. Complex relationship between the heroes, most of them are fairly predictable though.

The plot:

When Souji was a child, he was predicted to meet 3 women with water sign in their names. One of them could lead him to his death.

Souji gets involved with local gangsters and breaks the rules of the games, he has to flee from Akakawa to Tokyo , and he has to stop digging in his past and look for the people from his past.

Souji decides to go his own way...

It's a good, easy read, I would especially recommend this book for those who find ordinary literature written by Japanese authors too complex.

The most I loved about this book is last few chapters, they were something I was not expecting! And I'm so happy that author didn't finish it the predictable way.

I would recommend this book for reading. It's my third book by the author and I really enjoy her writing style

'Mesmerising' is the perfect word to describe this book. I read Goenawan's book 'The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida' and really enjoyed it so was looking forward to this one.

Our main character Shouji is told as a young boy that in the future he will meet three women with water in their names. He needs to be careful as death may follow - but also one of them may be the love of his life! Not an easy or particularly useful fortune to be told!

The book is split into three parts and we're introduced to the three women through Shouji's life. We're also introduced to the term 'ear prostitute' which is what ends up getting Shouji into trouble!

This book has an extremely interesting and unique story, with many different parts and a whole range of powerful characters. The only reason I couldn't rate it higher was because I found it a bit too slow=paced at times. But I do highly recommend it as the story is brilliant.

When he is a little boy Shouji’s mother is told that he will come to meet three women with water in their name that will be significant in his life, there is a great risk that some of them might sink.

All grown up we find Shouji plagued by nightmares of drowning and working at a mysterious tea house, where his girlfriend also works as what he calls an “ear prostitute”.
He ends up betraying one of the companies most powerful clients and his world is turned upside down.
He now has to keep himself safe while also searching for his girlfriend Youko.
In his search he finds out that Youko is not who he though she was, why has she been lying to him? And where is she?

The search for Youko and for safety takes Shouji to Tokyo where he meets some of the most likable characters I’ve encountered in litterateur.
This books is one part crime noir set in Japan and one part folklore tale, and it’s a very refreshing read!

This was my first meeting with Goenawan’s writing, and I have to say that I’m a fan of her atmospheric and genre blending writing style❤️
There is something dreamlike but slightly unsettling over this story that kept me engaged.
If you like Yoko Ogawa’s writing you might also love this one!

My review is based on an E-ARC kindly provided by Scribe UK and NetGalley.

Watersong follows Shouji and his girlfriend, Youko, who provide confidential services to rich clients. Breaking company rules, he befriends an elegant customer and tries to help her by exposing her influential husband’s misdeeds. The plan backfires. What follows is a long journey where destiny is challenged, faith is questioned, and love is lost and found in equal measure.

Clarissa is an Indonesian born Singaporean author who specialises in writing literary mysteries with elements of magical realism set in Japan. I haven't read her other two books - Rainbirds and The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida and it appears that they are a series of interconnected novels. If I have time I would like to go back and pick up those as it might add something to my reading experience of Watersong.

Overall I enjoyed this book which was very heavily character driven and gave a sense of closeness but also vastness. I relished the feeling of intimacy gazing upon these characters’ lives, but also the broad philosophical questions woven into the story.

Never have your fortune told!

I really enjoyed Clarissa Goenawan's new novel Watersong, it took me out of a reading slump and I liked spending time with her characters, loved the tea ceremony set up, the mystery, but also the normal moments of just characters eating food and spending time together. Really loved that she brought a bit of Singapore into this book, hopefully we'll get even more of that and maybe a female lead in her next novel which I'm already looking forward to reading.

Having been a fan of Clarissa Goenawan since reading Rainbirds several years ago, I had high expectations for her third book. If you have read her previous books, you would be familiar with some notable traits: Japanese characters and the fictional city of Akakawa. As is the case with The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida , the story in Watersong is also divided into three parts which is preceded by a short prologue that manages to stir my curiosity throughout the story. The main character, Shouji Arai, received the following prophecy from a fortune-teller in his hometown in Fukuoka who told his mother: ‘Your son will come across three women with the water element in their names. One of them could be his soulmate. But if he’s not careful, the water will flood. He, or someone close to him–these women perhaps–may drown.’

Each of the three parts of the story focuses on the three women with the water element in their names, namely Mizuki, Liyun, and Youko, which brings a mystical element to the story, albeit it does not lose the touch of crime fiction. If the author’s previous book experiments with three viewpoints from Ryusei, Chie, and Fumi to explain the death of Miwako Sumida, then this book attempts to show how the interactions with the three women influenced and changed Shouji’s life. I read this book really fast and there are cliffhangers at the end of each chapter that tempts me to keep reading from chapter to chapter.

The first woman, Mizuki, meet Shouji through a strange circumstance. Shouji was dating Youko and moved to Akakawa from Tokyo soon after graduating with a degree in economics from Waseda University. Youko has been working for a shady company in Akakawa, where Shouji soon followed suit. The company serves five types of tea and allows the customers to converse freely for one hour with the “listeners”–or as Shouji calls it the “ear prostitutes”–to let them vent their problems or just talk about anything. The rule that reigns supreme for the “listeners” is that they could never disclose any conversations they had with the customers to anyone else. Mizuki, the wife of a powerful politician in Akakawa, came to like Shouji and became his loyal customer. The more they talk, the more Shouji sympathises with Mizuki’s domestic problems and made an attempt to help her, to the point that he dismissed the company’s rules to never divulge the information.

The stories of the next two women are interrelated with the first, and the prophecy in the prologue proves to be a strong mystical element of the story. The second woman, Liyun, is a Singaporean who is a unique cast in Clarissa Goenawan’s characters from her previous books since this is the first time a foreigner appears in her stories. Of the three women, I’m in love most with Liyun whom Shouji likens to a stray cat. An independent woman with a no-nonsense attitude, yet she also welcomes kind gestures and occasional treats just like a stray cat. She is a calculating character that could balance the recklessness of Shouji’s actions. But at the end of the day, Shouji is unsure about his feeling and his choice in life.

Watersong is less experimental, or perhaps it’s me getting used to Clarissa Goenawan’s styles and plots. I find this book better than Rainbirds, but still, I regard The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida as the author’s magnum opus. The characters in Watersong feel distant, but I think of the mystical element and the way the legend over the story is built as a welcome way to build the plot. And the moral story is clear from the very beginning, that kindness alone might not be enough to help other people. Sometimes by attempting to help, we might end up exacerbating the problems. This novel is also highly musical, with a lot of references to classical music that fits here and there in the story.

In some ways, Watersong is really fresh with its plots. There were several occasions when I get surprised by some facts disclosed throughout the story. I could easily imagine reading this book for the second time will bring a lot of aha moments. But also, I’ll have to note that compared to Clarissa Goenawan’s sophomore book, this story is darker and closer to many crime fictions that I encountered in the market. Some Murakami-Esque traits of the characters such as their loneliness and their attempts to overcome the human condition are still present, albeit not as pronounced as in her previous works. I could see that the author begins to find her own unique voice in her third book, still pursuing the same lonely characters with unspeakable pasts with the Japanese city in the 1990s as the backdrop and the criminal actions as a rule to bring social problems into the surface.

Thanks to Scribe UK for providing the electronic advance reading copy through NetGalley.

I'm finally sitting down to write this review after a few weeks and I still think back to it and remember how much I liked it. I absolutely adored Clarissa Goenawan's second book, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida (and while we're at it, you should go read it if you haven't), and I was thrilled to get an ARC for Watersong as it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. That being said, I was a bit scared of picking it up and a bit worried that it would not meet my expectations - I am happy to announce my concerns were entirely misplaced.

Watersong is the story of Shouji Arai, a man whose life will be altered by three women who have something to do with water. We follow Shouji as he begins working in a very interesting tea house along with his girlfriend working as what she deems as being 'ear prostitutes' - an appropriate name for something that ends up being more dangerous than you expect. As things are, a job that seems very simple ends up turning Shouji's life around in every wrong way and his only goal is to keep himself safe and find his girlfriend Youko.

I have seen many readers compare Goenawan's writing with Haruki Murakami and I do agree there's a similar feeling, yet this time around I felt Watersong had a Yōko Ogawa vibe to it. It was intriguing and there was a mystery, but the story followed characters, and I - even though I was intrigued by it all - cared for the characters. This was an absolute treat to read as I like character-driven plots. And I do want to mention - if you're one of these readers who hate books without likable characters -, Watersong has recurring characters that show up more or less often and they are so likable. It's been weeks and I still think of some of them and smile (and as a side note, I still think of Fumi from The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida as one of my favorite book characters ever).

In short, I highly recommend this book. I was intrigued by what was going on and Shouji's job, I was intrigued by the backstories of every character, I was just enchanted by it all - and most of all, I feel the story was somewhat dark, yet Goenawan excels at making it feel almost magical rather than... concerning? Like, I knew Shouji was into a mess and the mess could escalate, yet I just wanted to find Youko as bad as he did and I forgot about the danger - sort of like him.

I recommend this one very much. And now I am going back to my waiting chair to see when Goenawan's next book comes up. Because there is a next one, right? Right?

This has got to be my least favorite out of her books. The twist at the end felt cheap after everything that’s happened. Really disappointed.

Beautiful writing from Clarissa Goenawan. With the essence of Murakami's writing style and the typical 'mystery' story that Goenawan writes so well, Watersong takes you on a journey of seeking out someone from the past. With subtle hints dropped throughout the book, in such an elegant manner. Easy reading and loveable characters I couldn't get enough of Waterson and am so sad it's over!

This is a beautifully wirtten book that is full of vivid descriptions and rich imagery. It is well written with an interesting and compelling storyline and characters that are well developed. This book made me feel so much while I was reading it and I still think about it now. I really liked it.