I tend to be too upset by books about prisoner of war camps and other atrocities of war to enjoy them, but this was very skilfully written and quite beautiful. I enjoyed how the story moved between time periods and didn't reveal too much too soon. 

I'm really not sure if I like this book or not. I think I did - it was a very challenging read, both in terms of the subject matter and characters, but also just from the formatting of the book. I believe this was intentional, as a way to convey the turmoil and confusion felt by the characters. It was a much heavier read than I was prepared for, but I am glad I read it. There aren't many books on this subject, and it is an important one.

The descriptions of the natural setting were very detailed and often very
poetic but at times, personally, I felt like they were a bit too much, both in terms of quantity/length and in terms of overuse of similies (I get that similes are nice but enough is enough).

I think there were also too many of what I would call "explanation sections", basically sections that feel more like an infodump about a certain topic (for example gardening practices or the art of tattoos) and they do tend to stick out a bit too much and take you out of the narrative flow.

Also, sometimes I found the time jumps in the narrative a bit confusing and it took me a little bit to re-orient myself and place the episode within the story's timeline. 

I struggled a bit to connect with the main characters (by the way, I don't know if I find the romantic aspect of their relationship really well-developed on the page and convincing) and, at times, I was actually more drawn towards secondary characters (such as the storyline of Tatsuji).

The story was interesting enough for me to want to keep reading until the end but it didn't really captivate me completely. I think the section narrating the experience of the internment camp, though one of the most harrowing, was also the most moving and impactful.