Clocking in just over 24 hours, this audiobook is 30% longer than the longest audiobook I've listened to previously, yet I've been happily spending runs listening to Press Director Mikami's story since the beginning of October without ever growing bored. I wonder whether I would have enjoyed this book as much if I'd read it myself, and for that I have to give a great deal of credit to the narrator. Yokoyama has woven together a complex tale, and Burnip brings it to life in this audio production with vibrant and varying voices. There were so many characters and plot points to keep track of that I'm very surprised how rarely I felt missing a needed detail, Yokoyama seems to grasp brilliantly how much information to remind the reader without feeling repetitive. This is something I especially appreciated as I was unable to flip back and re-read passages.

My main qualm with this book was in the portrayal of it's few female characters, and especially Mikami's missing daughter. Her disappearance is a source of great anguish to him, but she otherwise feels like quite an unrealistic caricature and even just a plot device. However, I think that some of the dynamics in this novel are out of my reach because of its Japanese setting and characters, so I hesitate to make too strong of a value judgement.