Pushkin Press Ms Ice Sandwich

The simplicity of the book and the story is what hooks you in. It doesn’t start with a bang but grows on you gradually. It’s a book that makes you a little sad and a little happy. There is loneliness and pain, but there is also love, friendship, bonding, and the little things that make life worth living.The naivety of youth and the exhilaration of attraction (if you can call it that, the narrator seems to be every bit confused about it) makes for a heartwarming read. Just like Ms Ice Sandwich, our young narrator too is a bit socially awkward, never knowing what to say and how to behave. He doesn’t fit in, always managing to get by just okay.

This book has been called a coming-of-age story. I think it’s about the birth of an artist. The boy becomes obsessed with a young lady who sells sandwiches at the supermarket — because of her huge eye lined in blue. He begins to draw her. She is unfriendly but icily efficient at her job. He buys sandwiches from her every day just to look at her.Are her eyes so big as a result of plastic surgery? (Some Asian women get their eye “fixed” to look Western.) He wants to know — and doesn't.As the story unfolds, we get a touching picture of his affection for his grandmother who is paralyzed and speechless from a stroke. She’s the only person he can talk to. Then a quirky girl in his class makes friends with him. She is wise beyond her years and opens his eyes to a few things. And he continues to draw Ms Ice Sandwich over and over until the drawing feels just right.This little story is bigger than its page count. There’s philosophy in it. There’s love in it — but no sentimentality. There’s the artist’s eye.I can see why Haruki Murakami admires this author. Elegantly spare and oddly evocative, Ms Ice Sandwich is a gem.

A beautiful story deftly told with an excellent translation from the original Japanese. The book is beautiful and arrived completely undamaged.

Ms Ice Sandwich-Short Romantic FlingA fourth standard, shy and introverted, has a crush on a girl at the bakery in the posh supermarket. He keeps this in his heart until Tutti, his classmate, comes to his rescue and tells him to reveal everything to that girl. It is a lovey-dovey and touching story. The unusual thing is that goatish emotions are missing in this novel, which is almost a requisite in Japanese fiction.Hats off to Mieko Kawakami!Dr. Brij MohanAuthor-Second Innings

It’s a heartwarming story about a child having affection towards a woman who sells sandwiches.