"Colorful" by Eto Mori... Oh, my, where do I even begin? This novel is just so beautiful!!
It's a story following a soul that is unable to move forward the cycle of reincarnation, because it's the "Lucky Winner" due to a crime it committed in the previous life. It gets the chance to "borrow" the body of 14-year-old Makoto Kobayashi that very recently passed away due to suicide, and live through his life for some time until it finds out what the crime was and continue the cycle of rebirth.
The thing I love about this book the most is that you slowly connect with the protagonist (who is also the narrator) the same way that he connects with Makoto Kobayashi. The story is full of moral and psychological lessons, such as the fact that things are often not the way we see them. We should take a bird's-eye view of every situation. And not give up too early.
Maybe even stop worrying about every little thing so much.
We can even think of our own lives as a short stay — we're only here for a few decades, afterall. So why not chase our dreams? Why feel like the world will end over things that we've misunderstood?
Why?
We have to be rational.
We have to think things through.
We have to live life to the fullest.
Because... Who cares what others will say? We should live for ourselves and our own and our close ones' happiness.
Really deep novel... Absolutely worth a read!! I imagine it would also be a really valuable one for people that suffer from depression and such issues.
