西村賢太
Born 1967 · Japan
Akutagawa 2010 (second half) · Winner
Kueki ressha
Title translated by AI:“Train of Hard Labour”
Kenta Nishimura · 43 when first published
Novella · 147 pages · Autofiction, Coming of age
AI-generated summary:In the mid-1980s, nineteen-year-old Kanta Kitamachi, a middle-school leaver with no friends and no girlfriend, scrapes by on day labour at the docks and spends his wages on drink and brothels, until a cheerful new co-worker enters his life.
Akutagawa 2007 (second half) · Candidate
Kozeni o kazoeru
Title translated by AI:“Counting Small Change”
Kenta Nishimura · 40 when first published
Novella · 177 pages · Autofiction, Love
AI-generated summary:A man who has never had luck with women at last finds one who loves him back, but his rages and his fists put their life together under strain, and their quarrels over money turn into a tragicomedy.
Akutagawa 2005 (second half) · Candidate
Dōde shinu mi no hitoodori
Title translated by AI:“One Dance for a Body Bound to Die”
Kenta Nishimura · 38 when first published
Novel · 211 pages · Autofiction
AI-generated summary:Calling himself the posthumous disciple of Seizo Fujisawa, a destitute Taisho-era writer who died in misery, a man tends his grave and stakes everything on publishing his collected works, while beating his live-in girlfriend.