One of my absolute favorite books is ‘Revenge’ by Yoko Ogawa. It’s a collection of interrelated horror short stories. They weren’t downright gory but Ogawa weaves horror into everyday stories like it’s the most natural thing and that still gives me the creeps. Ogawa has written more than 20 works of fiction and non-fiction and won every major literary award in Japan. I had been looking for her other works when I stumbled on ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor’. I bought it without even reading the blurb. The book was first published in 2003 and was translated into English in 2009. It was also made into a film in 2006. A story about a mathematics professor whose memory only lasts 80 minutes, The Housekeeper and the Professor is a beautiful meditation on life, the importance of relationships, and the lasting impact humans have on each other’s lives. A head injury in a car accident leaves a brilliant professor of number theory with short-term memory loss. Numbers are his only way of staying connected with the outside world and fostering connections with people and remembering them. He writes and pins little notes on his suit to help him recall things. The professor has no family except a widowed sister-in-law. She lives in the main house and he in a little cottage behind it.

The story is narrated by the housekeeper hired to look after the professor, and offers fascinating insight into the mind of a genius while busting the myth that you have to be one to understand and love math. The housekeeper and her son—whom the professor names Root because ‘the top of his head is flat like the square root sign’—enjoy discovering equations and solving problems the professor comes up with. In the process, the three develop an unshakable bond.

Math takes centerstage in this novel. You might find yourself recalling things you studied in school or college. And it suddenly becomes interesting as the professor makes math principles relevant in day-to-day life. Nothing dramatic happens in the book. It’s slow and there isn’t much of a plot. But Ogawa builds up tension by dropping little hints of the professor’s life before the accident. It’s a short book but not one you can breeze through: there is a lot to take in. The Housekeeper and the Professor is a moving story of found family that has you in tears, both of joy and grief. Three and half stars Fiction The Housekeeper and the Professor Yoko Ogawa Translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder Published: 2009 (English translation) Publisher: Vintage Pages: 180, Paperback