貝殻航路

The narrator grew up on the eastern tip of Hokkaido, looking across at the islands Russia has held since the war, the daughter of a fisherman whose boat was once taken by the Russians when it strayed over the line at sea. Now she lives in Kushiro with her husband, an Ainu-descended musician, until one day he goes off with no word of where, just as the town awaits a cruise liner from Alaska. Alone and worn down, she thinks of Kaigara Island, a speck of rock with a lighthouse that the tide covers, whose Ainu name her father taught her. Her husband and his sister keep their people's memory alive, and the loss of the border and of Ainu land runs quietly through her life.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novella

Length

114 pages in the original

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Japan

First published

2025 by Bungeishunju

Author's age

38 when first published

ISBN

9784163920757 (original)