قصة الكتاب :
Bungeishunjū (Bunshun Bunko), 2004. 192 pp. ¥430. ISBN 978-4-
16-766503-6.
Yoshida Shūichi
Born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1968. Won the Bungakukai New
Writers Award for Saigo no musuko [The Last Son] in 1997, the Yamamoto
Shūgorō Prize for Parēdo [trans. Parade] and the Akutagawa
Prize for Pāku raifu [Park Life] in 2002, and the Osaragi Jirō Prize
and Mainichi Publishing Culture Award for Akunin [trans. Villain]
in 2007. Other works include Sayonara keikoku [The Ravine of
Goodbye]. Parēdo, Akunin, and other works have been adapted into
films.

In a Tokyo park, the narrator reencounters a woman to whom he had previously
spoken on the subway. They start to talk together regularly, becoming closer in the
process, but do not touch on their personal lives—they do not even share their
names. One day she invites him to a photography exhibition, where he finds out
that she is from Akita Prefecture in the north of Japan. But immediately after he
learns this, she leaves with the air of having made a decision.
This is a rather strange work. Nothing really happens and there is no traditional
plot development. The narrative simply depicts in parallel a number of ways of
living and human relationships.
The Udagawas, friends of the narrator who were his seniors at university, tried
to become more intimate with one another, but this became a psychological burden
on their marriage and they separated. His parents are a loving couple, but his
mother regularly comes to stay with him in Tokyo and wanders the streets alone.
This seems to be his parents’ key to maintaining their marriage over the long term.
Most mysterious of all is the relationship between the narrator and the nameless
woman. They have warm feelings for each other and get restless if they do not
meet for even one day. But frightened of moving any closer, they remain stalled
one step away from love.
While people cannot live in total solitude, sometimes relationships can feel
like a hassle. If married couples or lovers in the first heat of passion feel moments
of unbearable longing to be together, there are also times when they wish to establish
distance. It can be difficult to find the same wavelength, which can cause
disagreements. The work skillfully depicts the inherent contradictions of daily life
and the shades of emotion that life conceals. (CK)