Book Review – Yuki Chan In Bronte Country by Mick Jackson

Yukiko has travelled all the way from Japan to England, ostensibly to see her sister Kumiko in London, but ultimately to visit Haworth, fabled home of the Brontes. Whilst the older Japanese women on Yukiko’s tour are overcome to be in the mythical Parsonage where the Brontes penned their famed novels and to walk the same atmospheric moors that the sisters walked before them, Yukiko has no interest in some long-dead authors. She is not in Haworth to follow in the footsteps of the literary sisters, but rather the footsteps of another: her mother.

Yukiko’s is a personal journey of spiritual and psychical resolution to try and reconnect with her mother and understand her passing. Mick
Jackson’s novel is a subtly haunting and strangely affecting read. There’s something hypnagogic about it all, but also very real. And whilst the plot, like Yukiko herself, is somewhat curious, the sentiment of the novel is utterly authentic.