キッチン

This is the first novel I've read in Japanese, and I feel it was a decent pick. I read it slowly over the space of about 3.5 weeks, and tracked the time it took - about 7 hours, so you could definitely get through it faster at my level if you spaced it out less.

The stories covered in キッチン revolve a lot around the experience of grief and loss, and I found them quite moving at times. I'd read the book in English about 6 years ago but had forgotten everything about it, so it all felt fresh to me.

As novels go, the prose is fairly straightforward and there aren't too many overly-complicated terms. Certainly was a challenge to understand everything but I still recommend it as a first novel.