Reddit mentions of The Housekeeper and the Professor

My favorite book of the past 10 years is The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa

Premise: A housekeeper and her son meet a crazy old mathematician. However, this mathematician has short-term memory loss, so that every 80 minutes his memory resets.

Pros: Very well-paced, heartwarming without being cheesy, interesting characters, uses mathematics as a metaphor our relationships as people.

Cons: Some characters are under-developed, some interesting plot points are missing.

Overall, it's a fun read that I recommend to everyone. Generally Japanese Lit is known for being very dry, but this was one of the few books that I always wanted to read just a little more.

Some of my favorites are The Housekeepr and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I'm also a big fan of Walter Moers(German), but his books aren't everyone's thing. Goodreads might also be a good place to continue your search. I just did this search and found many books that would meet your requirements.

I enjoyed Yōko Ogawa's (Ogawa is the family name) The Housekeeper and the Professor. Definitely reminded me of my time in Japan, and also, I like math. :)

Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper And The Professor is a fiction work about a math professor who has an 80 minute memory span. Some of the number theory is interesting and well-woven into the story.