‘Lonely Castle in the Mirror’ helps us face the consequences of bullying

If you were to enumerate the problems besetting Japanese society, bullying would be high on that list. In school and at work, bullying and other forms of harassment are the root cause of horrific statistics for mental health and suicide. For all the talk and hand-wringing, however, year on year little seems to improve.

Given the ubiquity of the problem, it’s perhaps no surprise that “Lonely Castle in the Mirror,” Mizuki Tsujimura’s respectful, moving novel about teenage bullying in the Tokyo suburbs, made such an impact upon publication in 2017. It has sold more than 500,000 copies to date, and won the Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2018. Now, it’s been given an English translation by Philip Gabriel.