DNF at 70%
This is the story of a highly successful mother who is busy with her work and has a romance with her coworker, who is also her subordinate. While her focus is on her work and sex, her daughter gets kidnapped by her nanny. The nanny and the daughter are travelling to the nanny's hometown. The nanny used to live in a tiny room called Tokyo suite; because of its tiny size, it brings in ming the Japanese capsules in which people sleep overnight before returning to their corporate work. Dreadful.

Something isn`t right here. I don`t know if the translation isn't great or if it's my lack of focus, but judging by other reviews, it's not just me. The story is told from two perspectives: the mother's and the nanny's. There is no clear distinction as to who tells the story at the given time. The voices are too similar, and it's easy to get confused. Also, at some point, there are two sentences that made me think that Maju is the sister of the mother, not the nanny. One paragraph made me think that it's told by the sister. And who on earth is Ana? Whose child is she?
As you can see, I got totally lost and couldn`t follow the story.

I adored this. The writing was beautiful. The characters felt so real. I loved seeing them develop as the story progressed. The writing was so poetic and I really enjoyed it

Brazilian writer Giovana Madalosso’s The Tokyo Suite opens dramatically with the sentence “I am kidnapping a child.” Maju, the nanny, leaves a Sāo Paulo apartment with four-year old Corinha/Cora and Cora’s favorite toy, a plush sheep named Bibi, thinking about what she is doing and fearing snother nanny in the park across the street may notice. The normal daily routine would be to take Cora to the club for her swimming lesson before delivering her to preschool, but on this morning, the pair are headed to the bus station where they will board a bus to Maju’s hometown in Paraguay where she and the child will take on new identities.

Despite the kidnapping, The Tokyo Suite is more a character study than a thriller. Even the name might hint that since it’s the nickname Cora’s mother Fernanda has given quite ironically to the small room she fitted out for Maju when asking her to live in. Chapters alternate between Maju and Cora’s points of view and proceed almost in a stream-of-consciousness style as each woman’s thoughts wander between present, past, and imagined future, punctuated by dreams, nightmares, possible disaster scenarios, and even hallucinations. As Maju and Cora travel toward Paraguay, they experience one mishap after another in the present as years of events leading up to the kidnapping are slowly revealed through Maju’s thoughts. Coming up with one explanation after another why Maju and Cora aren’t home, Fernanda drinks, downs pills, and recalls time spent with her coworker and female lover Yara both on the nature filming set in remote parts of the Brazilian interior and at Yara’s Sāo Paulo apartment.

This is a novel about desires and guilt, trust and distrust, loss and longing, dreams and “signs,” and paranoia and misplaced priorities. Madalosso raises questions about the definition of love, about the relationship between the human and natural world, and about the varieties of religious beliefs—Catholicism, atheism, and indigenous Brazilian traditions.

Both Maju and Fernanda need to come to terms with themselves, to wrestle with what is right and wrong. The author largely leaves her readers to draw conclusions about the outcome.

Thanks to NetGalley and Europa Editions for an advance reader egalley.

'...the illusion that life follows a trajectory, that everything will be fine in the end. That we can take the reins of our lives to get more quickly to the grand finale. Until one day I realise I can't control anything. Worse, there isn't even a trajectory to follow'.

Maju, Cora's nanny, decides to pack up and leave. Leave her employers' house, leave the city, leave with Cora. It may have seemed to have been on a whim, but actually, it was well-planned. She wouldn't want to be caught for kidnapping after all. And it's not really kidnapping if you're escaping with a child whose mother is never around, whose father is there but not there. Maju loves Cora and she will not face ever being separated from her.

Fernanda is Cora's mother. Fernanda has got a lot on her plate. As the breadwinner of the family, and working across time zones, she doesn't have much time for anything else. Well, except one illicit indulgence, an affair. Now that she's hired Maju to be a live-in nanny, she can start to be herself again - that's not being willfully ignorant is it, 'I think about how I've come to be a tourist in my own house...'. In fact, just because Cora is gone, doesn't necessarily mean she's missing. For instance, her mother might've just picked her up from school - yes, that's it....

Maju and Cora may have diametrically opposed lives but really they're caught in the same quandry: womanhood vs motherhood. 'The Tokyo Suite' delves into the often difficult and guilt-ridden world of trying to balance being yourself, being a mother, and having a career. It's a balance that requires sacrifice and choices that are not always in harmony with being who you thought you were, or wanted to be. This book has been translated into English with a certain austerity and frankness in language that serves to underscore the 'everydayness' of this predicament.

I thought this was a thought-provoking read and was told in an interesting way. However, despite its short length, it did read slowly.

'I wanted that position and I realized that being a frustrated mother wasn't a great plan, because I'd end up passing all my bitterness down to my daughter'.

Two women in Sao Paolo follow very different, but intertwined paths. Fernanda is given a promotion, but one that will require her to work and travel more than before. Since she's the sole breadwinner and her husband doesn't work, she feels compelled to take the job, but in order to do so, she has to get her nanny to agree to reduce her free time to one day a month. As a sweetener, she turns the maid's room into what she calls "the Tokyo Suite," painting it and adding a small refrigerator. Maju, the nanny, is trying to start a family with her husband. Every weekend, they reunite and enjoy being together, but the additional money offered and the threat of losing her job if she says no means that she agrees to the new schedule, one that will cost her not only the chance of having children herself, but also her marriage. Maju puts all of herself into raising the young girl she cares for, while Fernanda spends most of her time away from home, where she meets an alluring co-worker. Eventually, Maju takes the step of running away with her young charge.

The beauty of this book is that Madalosso has the reader sympathizing with both a wealthy woman coercing a woman into working 24 hours a day, everyday, and with a woman who abducts a toddler. It's also a look at the pressures put on women to do everything. Fernanda may be working all the time, but she's still the one in charge of making sure the household runs smoothly and is the one who is responsible for organizing everything her daughter needs while her husband can control his own schedule. That she eventually looks for a relationship not based on obligation isn't surprising. And Maju has spent her life doing what is expected of her and being a conscientious employee, none of which makes her continued employment more secure when she can be homeless whenever her employer decides she no longer wants to employ her. The power differential is enormous and unjust. But does that justify her walking out with another woman's child? There's a lot to think about in this novel and it's one that will stick with me for some time.

This is the first piece of Brazilian literature I've read but I loved this book. For a 200 page-ish book, there is so much substance within this story. Following Maju's abduction of Cora, the little girl she nannies for, we delve into the psyche of both Maju and Fernanda (Cora's mother). Both of these women aren't particularly interesting characters right off the bat but they are so so human and this rawness is what makes them so compelling to read about.

Madalosso did an exquisite job in writing Maju and Fernanda. They are fully fleshed out with wants, fears, trauma, and inner turmoil that feels exceedingly real. I'm not going to say that she captured the entire scope of the human experience in the span of two characters but these dual perspectives felt more like the turbulent emotions, desires, and anxieties of actual people than mere characters. I'm sure that Maju's experiences as a nanny who has come to care for the children under her charge will strike a chord with readers as well as Fernanda's sense of disconnect from her own family. They are beautifully flawed and multifaceted in a way that evokes sympathy, admiration, and disgust all at once. Even though this story starts off audaciously, with the kidnapping of a child by her nanny, the reader comes to understand Maju's choices and her actions.

I'm aware that this book is an English translation from Portuguese, but the writing was just...clunky although I don't mean that in a wholeheartedly adverse manner. The dialogue between characters is not separated in quotation marks but instead just another piece of a large paragraph nestled between vivid descriptions of the present setting and the character's internal thoughts. Some sentences run on forever whilst others are clipped short. Thus, there is this seemingly disjointed feel about the prose, yet I think it makes perfect sense and it reflects the abstractness and varied unpredictability of human thoughts. Although this awkward writing style makes The Tokyo Suite a bit hard to read at times, it makes the characters and their points of view all the more real. The clunkiness has some substantial purpose to it; the prose isn't meant to be lyrical or flowery because this book is about the human experience and the human experience is anything but clear, smooth, and perfect. I loved the jaggedness and raw nature to Madalosso's writing.

The Tokyo Suite isn't the most gut-wrenching book I've ever read nor did it bring me to tears, but it did evoke a vast sense of understanding for the world around me and its people. As I viewed life through the eyes of two women whose live couldn't be any more different from my own, I came to better understand just how complex each of our individual lives are in all of our ugliness, beauty, and humanity.

This book was so engrossing. I never wanted to put it down. Two stories told in parallel, both about motherhood, but from completely different viewpoints, and about the same child. I would love to discuss this in a book club.

Thanks to NetGalley & Europa Editions for the e-ARC!

**2.5 stars** I’m not sure if the English translation did this book justice—it was super hard to follow at times, though somewhat enjoyable to read.

The story follows a nanny, Maju, who boards a bus with Cora, the young girl in her care, on what seems like a long journey—only to reveal that Cora is being kidnapped. Meanwhile, we also read about Cora's mother, Fernanda, in the midst of an affair with a woman while being in a strained marriage with her husband. Maju struggles with her new life on the streets of São Paulo with Cora, hoping the girl’s parents won’t find them. Unbeknownst to Maju, Fernanda is so consumed by her own life that she fails to notice her daughter’s disappearance.

The story encapsulates the feeling of an identity crisis well. I enjoyed reading about Fernanda’s self-discovery and experimentation. Maju’s sense of urgency was also well-captured, with readers experiencing her paranoia as she navigates her new life on the run. However, it took me some time to fully immerse myself in the story. Initially, I found it very confusing—the lack of transitions left me questioning whose point of view I was reading or whether there were alternate timelines. This made it hard to follow at first.

The book explains the significance of the “Tokyo Suite,” but, to be honest, it didn’t add much to the story. While the writing was fairly easy to understand, I can’t help but wonder if the English translation properly conveyed the tone Madalosso intended.

Giovana Madalosso is a popular Brazilian author, and I’m interested in exploring more of her works once an English translation becomes available.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction + LGBTQ+

In what seems like a typical morning, nanny Maju disappears after getting on a bus with Cora, the little girl she is caring for. This drastic and impulsive action triggers a series of circumstances that will compel every character to face their innermost desires and fears.

Cora's mother, Fernanda, is an accomplished executive producer who becomes so preoccupied with her own problems that she does not realize her daughter has vanished at first. She finds comfort in an affair with another woman, which causes tension in her marriage and causes her to grow even farther away from her family. Let us just say that raising a child is not a top priority for Fernanda.

The story delves into the characters' lives as the search for Cora intensifies, revealing their unexpressed emotions and concealed motives. Themes of maternal longing, social injustice, and a strong desire for power all influence Maju's actions, who was all her life an invisible person. On the other hand, the pressures of her demanding career, combined with personal emotional struggles, contribute to Fernanda’s neglect of her daughter.

This is one of those stories that is not heavily reliant on the plot; it focuses more on the characters, their emotions, and the choices they ultimately make. The narrative unfolds through the voices of the two women, allowing us as readers to experience their present thoughts and reflect on their pasts.

This is a translation of the original work, so I don’t know how the English version compares to the original. However, I have to say that it took me some time to get used to the story, the names, and the structure of the book, especially since this ARC I received was not properly formatted. I’m sure the physical edition of the book will not have the formatting issues. However, once I understood the structure of the book, I was immersed in the story, or, I should say, the two stories of the protagonists.

If you were curious about the book's name, Fernanda has named the nanny’s room the Tokyo Suite! I’m giving the book a solid 4-star rating because, while the plot is straightforward on the surface, there are many deeper themes to explore beneath that, which I really appreciate.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso

A room provided by Maju’s employer, aptly named The Tokyo Suite, witnesses the turmoil of daily life in Sao Paulo. Giovana Madalosso presents a nuanced story that raises issues within relationships and parenthood. Fernanda, a successful executive, is married and mother to Cora, her small 4-year-old child. Testing her relationship, monotony rears it’s ugly head. Her husband is nice enough, understanding enough, but yet not enough. Fernanda’s emotions wander to the fun of another, and with it creeps a sense of guilt. Regret steers the bow of her uneven ship through turbulent waters. Maju, Cora’s nanny, is plagued by issues with trust, particularly with men. However, she is swept off her feet by a taxi driver. Their relationship blossoms, and soon Maju makes unsuccessful attempts to conceive her own children. As Maju’s situation crumbles, psychotic thoughts demand actions thought previously unthinkable. The reader is taken upon a journey of neglect and survival. Begging to ask, what lengths will a person go for happiness?

An intricate look into the complexities of human beings. We all want to feel loved and needed. We like the excitement and freshness of situations that placate our ego. These incessant requirements are clear, no matter our societal hierarchy. All situations have an inherent positive and negative implication on our lives. Striking a balance between the two would seemingly create balance. What happens when the pendulum swings too far to one side? Who am I neglecting in order to make more money? The kids, a spouse? Forever our need to be of importance, a good parent or friend. Our self-value is dependent upon these stipulations. This book manages to challenge misconceptions and lend credibility to the intrinsic good in people.

Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking. Observing people through a looking lens is for me an opportunity to magnify my own life in comparison. In its writing, I can see many outcomes from various readers. Numerous fundamental problems need to be examined, and each person's perspective on a potential solution will vary.Thus lies the beauty of this story. I am giving this 4 out of 5 stars and can wholeheartedly recommend!

Many thanks to Europa Editions for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.

Madalosso’s English language debut, The Tokyo Suite is both about a nanny who leaves one day with her charge, disappearing and also not at all about that. It is more about identity, expectations, maternal guilt, and priorities.

Whether it be work-focussed Fernanda who finds herself having an affair, the father who is more invested in the daily life of their child, a nanny who has always fallen in line and who wants to have a child of her own, or the society in which they live, The Tokyo Suite is a character study of two women and their desires.

Having not read any English reviews for this book, I did not know what to expect. I was drawn into the alternating chapters and the lives of the characters. There was enough plot to keep the story moving but my focus was on the why of it all, not the what. I found the pacing perfect for the type of story that Madalosso has written and believe it will appeal most to those who enjoy character driven, literary fiction and don’t require an ending to be explained.

The Tokyo Suite has been translated from Portuguese. The author has been a finalist for two book prizes in Brazil.

Thank you to @netgalley, Europa Editions and Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. The Tokyo Suite publishes March 4, 2025.

Superficial and boring. Disingenuous sex of all kinds. Also, drug induced hallucinations and kidnapping. Some of the downfall may be due to a poor translation, but the underlying premise of the story is trite. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Despair is a toxic human emotion that appears to be increasingly prevalent in our modern culture. Understandably it can be found amid those who are struggling, barely able to survive. Remarkably it is also pervasive among those who have so much, but always want more.

Brazilian Giovana Madalosso’s English language debut novel, “The Tokyo Suite” is a portrait of society in various states of despair and disrepair. As dramatic and disquieting as “The Tokyo Suite” can be, it is often loving, beautiful, and even hopeful. Urban frenzy and squalor, rural isolation and beauty are all brought to life through beautiful language, image, and tone. The characters are drawn with care and insight.

Madalosso’s screenwriting skills are easy to note. Tension and pacing, dialog and emotions are clearly rendered.

A special shoutout to Bruna Dantas Lobato for a lovely translation.

Thank you to (the wonderful) Europa Editions and NetGalley for the eARC.

Slow start, but nice read. The characters were interesting and had rich backstories. Overall, I enjoyed the plot and would recommend.

I love when I pick up a book on a whim, barely remembering the synopsis, and end up completely hooked, unable to stop reading. That’s exactly what happened with The Tokyo Suite. Just a few pages in, I was already recommending it to my friends.

For me, the most precious part of a book is when you can sympathize with every character, no matter what. Except for Cora, who’s a child, all the characters in The Tokyo Suite make mistakes. You know that much of what they do is undeniably wrong, but it’s still wonderful. You still empathize with them, put yourself in their shoes, and find yourself obsessing over what they’re going to do next—especially during the parts narrated by Maju.

I absolutely loved Giovana’s writing. It flows so naturally, everything fits perfectly, and now I’ve added all her other books to my reading list. Genius. Brilliant. Our literature is incredible; it feels like home. The Tokyo Suite is top-tier entertainment, from start to finish. There’s no way I could give it anything less than 5 stars.

interesting deeply interesting literary work filled with emotion and a deep analysis of the characters' lives. tysm for the arc

I chose to read this book based on its cover and the fact that it is written by a Brazilian author. I'm so glad I did! It is a very unique story written from alternating viewpoints about the lengths we will go to when grieving a life we wanted, dealing with pressures of an unhappy life, and finding oneself along the way. All characters were grey, and although their choices were very bad at some points, the characters were so well written that the motivations were understandable. I don't usually read books like this and I was very happy that I branched out!

This was a very entertaining read! It was about a kidnapping and also about family dynamics. It was very quick paced and it kept me hooked from the first sentence which I love when books are able to do that. It keep me interested and I liked the writing style of this author, I would read more of their books!!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

“I’m kidnapping a child”. . . . is the first sentence we read in
“Tokyo Suite”. We continue to take a wild ride to the end (208 pages).
I admit to losing sleep last night. I couldn’t put it down.

Giovanna Madalosso is a Brazilian writer and screenwriter. This is her “English-language” debut.
It was translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato.

“The Tokyo Suite” renders complex, difficult situations and emotions with skillful brushstrokes. . . giving us a story about the unpredictable ways in which the characters transcend what happens in their lives.

Until the kidnapping…
Maju was just another ‘white-army-nanny’—
—a moniker term made up by Mrs. Fernanda, whom Maju worked for. . . caring for Cora-(the only child of Mr. Caca and Mrs. Fernanda)

On any given morning in the piazza… one could see the white nanny uniforms, babies, and children and tow, chatting as they pushed the babies and children on strollers and swings.
Maju was part of this ‘nanny’ world for three years ….
….until she wasn’t any longer.

Mrs. Fernanda, (feeling a little guilty about leaving her daughter and asking Maju to move in full time), had recently fixed up Maju’s bedroom with extra comfort amenities—a T.V., a mini refrigerator. It looked like a lovely Japanese hotel. So she named the room, ‘Tokyo Suite’.
Mrs. Fernanda had just received an offer from the TV channel where she worked to leave her role as content director and become the executive producer…the highest-ranking position in the company in Brazil.
She increased Maju’s salary.

Not only was Mrs. Fernanda seldom around much for her child Cora …. (a husband she pretty put out to pasture too)…
but Mrs. Fernanda was distracted with a woman named Yara — having a “hoka-hoka” steamy affair.

*hoka-hoka* is a phrased used in many different ways.
….In Japanese, it means warm.
….In Hawaii, it means to thwart or disappoint.
….As a Native American phrase it means, “Let’s go men”.
…Hoka— itself means “to fly”.
…. The definition I found to be most fitting to ‘this’ story …
Between Mrs. Fernanda and Yara is:
— “female bonobo apes rubbing their genitals against one another. Someone in North Africa decided on this name, which is kind of funny, kind of musical”.

Soooo….
For me … from here on … it’s tricky of what to say - and what not to say — as far as content …
I don’t want to leave spoilers … but I also don’t want to say this was a comfortable subject to read about … a few scenes ‘are’ yucky. (well-written: but sickening/yucky).
….There is the kidnapping journey (my own thoughts were somersaulting the ‘why’ of it all)…..
….There is a brutal experience of rape ….
….There was a malaria endemic area
….drugs: ayahuasca (a tropical vine native to the Amazon region, noted for its hallucinogenic properties)….
….There is neglect …
….There are emotional detachments … as well as humiliating seduction….
….There is a marriage and Motherhood …
….There are the feelings of unworthiness and insecurities from ‘all’ of the characters …
….There is cruelty of a child …
….There are yearnings and desires ….
….There is powerful passion-a new possibility for oneself.
….There is the depth and beautiful setting of São Paulo …. and Mandaguacu….
….Southern Brazil and the many beautiful beaches.

I believe there was loneliness… day dreaming … and trying to survive a little bit longer …

At this point … I’ll leave a few ‘varied’ excerpts …..

Little Cora says:
“Maju, how are my eyes so small if I see the world so big?”

Mrs. Fernanda:
“My phone rings again. I glanced at it. It’s my husband. I put it on silent. I go back to rubbing my genitals against Yata’s, while outside hundreds of other primates are driving, with their hairy tails on the driver’s seat and opposable thumbs on the horn, causing an uproar in the jungle around us. When we lie back again, I have seven missed calls on my phone”.

“Even if we don’t know everything, we always know everything”.

“I discovered something: we can save tears the way we save coins. I saved a whole two weeks’ worth of tears, and opened the safe on my Sundays off. The key was the Elton John album. I lied down in the living room with the curtains drawn, put on ‘Blue Eyes’, and sobbed so loud I woke the neighbors”.

“Chickadee starts to pout, and I start to lose my patience too, because things have changed. I don’t carry Mrs. Fernanda’s bottomless money bags in my pockets anymore. It’s hard, but I need to explain this to Cora. I squat down and look at my girl with warmth. When Maju gets money, she’ll give you this whole store. But today Maju doesn’t have any, I say, and I show her my wallet, empty because I keep all my money in my bra.”

“Having a child was a strong punch that sent each of us to the corner of the ring, stars spinning around our heads. Not knowing who we were anymore, we slipped into extremes. We either lost our sexual identity or our desire came back stronger. We either dove into work or didn’t know what to do with our lives, leaving our careers to try new things or falling into existential crises that could last for years. We were so insecure in our role as mothers that we needed to put down our peers”.
“Undermining other mothers helps lessen the constant feeling that we’re doing a terrible job”.

With much insight and honesty — genuinely affecting —
Giovana Madalosso gave us an emotionally wrenching, yet intellectually rigorous suspense story with indelible characters.
Her writing is engrossing, bold, fragile, brittle, sharp and pulsing.
The voices of the characters are created so real that they are etched in our thoughts long after finishing the last page. The last sentence.
This story felt totally alive…. with its own beating heartbeat.

This was a beautifully done novel, I thought it was a great translation and enjoyed the complexity of family. The characters had that realistic charm that families have. I was glad I was able to get to know the characters in this universe and had that suspenseful feel that I was looking for.