Quizlit’s Book of the Month December 2025 is the enchanting Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura. Lost Souls is a tender, beautiful novel full of hope and kindness.
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Book of the Month December 2025
Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura
When Hirase, a young woman from Tokyo, arranges an appointment with the Go-Between, she doesn’t expect a teenager to show up. Dressed preppy-style in a duffel coat and carrying a notebook, he invites the dead back into the real world – at least, this is what Hirase has pieced together from his website page.
Ushered into a luxury hotel to await her meeting, the Go-Between lays down the ground-rules: the reunion lasts one evening under a full moon; the dead person cannot be called back by anyone else, and may refuse to meet.
Four more characters will go to a reunion:
a woman struggling with low self-worth finds the TV star who once helped her
an elder son, regretful of his greed, sees his deceased mother
a young woman reunites with the rival whose death she deliberately caused
a weary salary man meets to solve the mystery of his missing girlfriend
With each gripping story, clues are scattered like gems for the reader to piece together the emotional truth behind Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon.
“A fireside tale that looks at how and why the living are haunted by the dead… Tsujimura’s profound insights into ordinary lives and motivations – and how the dead might ease the minds of the living – make this a ghostly little masterpiece.”
—Wall Street Journal
“Displaying a matter-of-fact approach to the fantastical that recalls early Haruki Murakami, Tsujimura’s novel is an enchanting read.”
—Financial Times
“Tsujimura raises poignant and powerful questions about what the living owe not only the dead, but each other; and how we make peace with others and ourselves in the wake of overwhelming grief. A touching novel about loss with a magical and mystical flourish.”
—Kirkus
“The newest novel by Tsujimura, translated from Japanese, has a clear premise, clear prose, and offers fascinating complexity that unfolds through five, rich chapters…. Readers who enjoy piecing together mysteries and thinking about big questions will love this satisfying tale, with a sequel promised.”
—Booklist
“A resonating read…utterly priceless.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Delightful.”
—AV Club
“A beautifully written novel about hope and kindness.”
—The Big Issue
Also by Mizuki Tsujimura
How to Hold Someone in Your Heart
The much-anticipated follow-up novel to the instant national bestseller Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon picks up seven years later with go-between Ayumi, a young man caught between the demands of everyday life and his extraordinary gift: reuniting the living with the dead.
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain.
Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten sixteenth-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror
Bullied to the point of dropping out of school, Kokoro’s days blur together as she hides in her bedroom, unable to face her family or friends. As she spirals into despair, her mirror begins to shine; with a touch, Kokoro is pulled from her lonely life into a resplendent, bizarre fairytale castle guarded by a strange girl in a wolf mask. Six other students have been brought to the castle, and soon this marvelous refuge becomes their playground.
The castle has a hidden room that can grant a single wish, but there are rules to be followed, and breaking them will have dire consequences. As Kokoro and her new acquaintances spend more time in their new sanctuary, they begin to unlock the castle’s secrets and, tentatively, each other’s.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a mesmerizing, heart-warming novel about the unexpected rewards of embracing human connection.
If you enjoyed the Book of the Month December 2025, check out our Read Around the World 2025 Edition