Water Moon

Yambao (The Beginning of Always) delights with this gentle portal fantasy about a quaint mystical pawnshop from another realm that poses as a Tokyo ramen restaurant where customers can exchange their regrets for peace of mind. It’s Hana’s first day as the pawnshop’s new manager after her father, Toshio, retires. Instead of being excited for her new role, however, Hana awakens to find the pawnshop ransacked, the door open to the outside world, her father missing, and a regretted choice a customer pawned the day before stolen. Hana must track down the missing choice or face punishment from the Shiikuin, the mysterious entities who control her world. In the midst of this chaos, a physicist named Keishin walks in off the street looking for some ramen. He offers to help Hana hunt down the missing choice, leading them on a quest through a bizarre magical world. Yambao’s inventive setting pushes the limits of common fantasy tropes, and her thought-provoking exploration of regret, choice, and free will resonates. This whimsical tale will have readers riveted. (Jan.)