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Whose Sleeves?
A very ordinary English man’s chance encounters with Japanese culture bring colour and unlikely friendships into his deceptively ordered world.Publican Charlie Moulton is at a crossroads in his life. Unwrapping a gift from a Japanese customer after the death of his wife he is transported back to his childhood evacuation in the Norfolk countryside where he was adopted by an elderly professor and his Japanese wife.He embarks on a road trip which takes him back to a joyous and tragic past and which intersects with the present in unexpected ways.By turns funny and sad, the story travels through time and place. First as a child and then as an adult, this outwardly conventional man encounters an exotic and exuberant culture,
268 pages, Paperback
Published March 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 24, 2026
Heartbreaking in all the best ways.
Charlie Moulton, the protagonist, a publican in his fifties, seems to have spent most of his life repressing his emotions and, perhaps, his own self. Now that his wife Bridie has passed away and he is at a loose end, he decides to travel and revisit some old familiar places.
Chapters alternate between Charlie's journey across Norfolk in the 1980s and his brief stay with an old professor and his Japanese wife as an evacuee during WWII.
Our lives are shaped by the people around us, and whether they are genuinely interested in getting to know us. Charlie experienced the confusing pleasure of being listened to, but only for a very short period in his life.
Charlie's story and his decisions, what he has and, crucially, has not been doing with his life, have been haunting me.
Jonathan Abel's first published novel reads like a slow journey back through memory, and a gradual (self-)discovery.
Charlie Moulton, the protagonist, a publican in his fifties, seems to have spent most of his life repressing his emotions and, perhaps, his own self. Now that his wife Bridie has passed away and he is at a loose end, he decides to travel and revisit some old familiar places.
Chapters alternate between Charlie's journey across Norfolk in the 1980s and his brief stay with an old professor and his Japanese wife as an evacuee during WWII.
Our lives are shaped by the people around us, and whether they are genuinely interested in getting to know us. Charlie experienced the confusing pleasure of being listened to, but only for a very short period in his life.
Charlie's story and his decisions, what he has and, crucially, has not been doing with his life, have been haunting me.
Jonathan Abel's first published novel reads like a slow journey back through memory, and a gradual (self-)discovery.
Displaying 1 of 1 review