Tokyo's Mystery Deepens

Tokyo Moments, Book 2

By: Michael Pronko

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning novelist Michael Pronko examines Tokyo as a place, a culture, and a series of intense experiences. Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens digs into the enigmatic sides of Tokyo, with humor, delicacy, and enchantment. A transplanted American from the Midwest, Pronko’s observations and experiences open up the many, miniscule doors into Tokyo life.

More than just a setting for novels and films, Tokyo is a lively, interactive space that constantly pops up questions: How do you sweat politely, in Tokyo’s sweltering summers? How do you glance sideways, on crowded trains? How do homeowners transform a sliver of space into an impeccable garden? The answers are not what one might expect.

From the smooth flow of crowds, to the rhythms of housewives pounding their futons, in this third memoir, Tokyo comes alive with its mysteries intact and deeper than ever.

More at: www.michaelpronko.com

©2014 Michael Pronko (P)2024 Michael Pronko

Critic reviews

"A rare glimpse of the structure and nature of Tokyo's underlying psyche.” (Midwest Book Review)

Gripping, fascinating, informative, entertaining

Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens is the second superb audiobook in the captivating Tokyo Moments series of collected essays about everyday life in exotic Tokyo written with talent, humor, and knowledge by one of my favorite authors, Michael Pronko.

Award-winning novelist and respected professor Michael Pronko, who has lived, worked, and written in Tokyo for more than 20 years, invites us to take a tour of the largest city in the world in this beautiful series of superbly written essays.

With Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens, the author draws us even further into the fascinating and exotic culture of the Japanese people. Each essay is superbly written and it helps us discover and understand different aspects of daily life in Tokyo. A humongous, lively, hustling and bustling megacity filled with incredible people and fascinating customs.

Michael talks about the city with the ease and understanding of someone who lived a few decades there. Combining informative explanations with humor, he manages to find the most interesting and most peculiar events to share with us. I love Michael’s writing style, I loved it from the first time, and for me is comfort reading, or should I say… listening?

Indeed, comfort listening, that’s for sure! With audiobooks industry legend Peter Berkrot returning for another visit to Tokyo, we are immediately immersed in these short but sweet Tokyo minutes. it’s clear from his narration that Peter enjoys bringing to life Michael’s work as much as I do listening to it. Mr. Berkrot delivers a remarkable narrative experience for the listeners and expertly handles all the names and words in Japanese. By doing this, he raises the level of immersion to an all-time high.

Grab your AirPods, hit play, close your eyes, and be instantly transported to Tokyo, Japan. You’ll be walking the streets alongside Michael, with Peter as the voice, and together you will dive deeper and unravel even more of the mysteries surrounding these formidable people and this colorful place.

I said it before and I will say it again, Michael and Peter are a force of nature put together and I’m sure that they will delight and entertain us for many years to come!

As astonishing as it is intriguing, Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens manages to be at the same time truly informative and extremely entertaining! I can’t wait for the third Tokyo Moments audiobook to be narrated by Peter, so I can enjoy the full and complete Tokyo experience!