Synopsis:

Let’s all learn how to slow down …
2035: In the shadow of a race course, a young woman finds a robot on a scrap heap, contemplating the sky. Intrigued, she takes him under her care. Together, they decide to rescue the race horse named Today who is heading for the knackers’ yard after a lifetime of overwork. To make Today happy again, they hatch a special plan to let her run another race.

But it will be no ordinary event- they will train her to run the slowest time of her life.

In the heat of the race, Coli feels Today running too fast. She is in pain and will soon injure herself.

To save his beloved horse, Coli will commit one final act of bravery …

Radiant, urgent, deeply moving, A Thousand Blues is a hymn to our earth and to our humanity, giving powerful voice to those left behind in a fast forward-moving world of toxic productivity and competition. Brimming with heart and hope and rage, it shows with vivid empathy and warmth how friendship, community and sacrifice will set us free.

Review:

A touching story following Coli the robot jockey and his beloved horse, Today. Coli is found after a race, broken and ready for the scrapheap, by a young girl called Yeonjae. She takes him to her home and fixes him up, and together with Yeonjae’s sister and a classmate, they hatch a plan to save the injured and overworked Today from euthanasia.

Coli and Today sit at the heart of this book, and the love that the robot has for his horse is incredibly special. Coli was never meant to be able to feel or wonder, yet he does, and his desire to make sure Today was happy was so endearing. The way he saw the world was lovely and full of curiosity, and I think it’s something we can all learn from.

I enjoyed reading from all the POVs in this book. We have several, and aside from Coli’s, I found Yeonjae’s mothers the most moving, watching her still trying to deal with the grief from losing her husband all these years later. Each POV added depth and emotion to the story.

There are a lot of layers here, and a lot of themes visited. Aside from grief, we touch upon familial relationships, empathy, robotics and AI and the effect they could have on our future, how humans and animals can and should co-exist and disability rights. All of things things were handled gently and I never felt like anything was too much.

I have been enjoying Asian literature lately for the gentle and thoughtful messaging that is often woven through seemingly simple stories, and this book was no exception. At its core, A Thousand Blues is telling us to slow down and enjoy what we have and love, and to look at the world around us through curious eyes.

If you enjoy books like ‘Lonely Castle in the Mirror’, I think you will really like this one. It’s profound and quiet, emotional and wonderfully written.