The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park

About

At the bottom of a five-storey apartment block in a Tokyo neighbourhood called Advance Hill, there is a children’s playground with a hippo statue named Kabahiko. His eyes are upturned and teary-looking. According to local legend, if you touch the part of Kabahiko that corresponds to your ailment, you’ll see swift recovery. Five residents are drawn to the park: a boy desperate to recover his grades, a new mother who has forgotten how to talk to people, a wedding planner who has lost part of her hearing, a child faking an injury who discovers he’s actually in pain, and a man whose fading eyesight is teaching him to see differently. Aoyama, author of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, has a gift for finding the exact point where loneliness meets hope — and placing a hippo statue there.