星の子

Chihiro was a premature, sickly baby, and when nothing could stop the rash that tormented her at five, her father took a colleague's gift of miracle water. Her skin healed, and her parents gave themselves to the group that sells it. Now Chihiro is fifteen and tells her family's story plainly, as she understood it at each age: the moves to ever smaller homes, her father's new job found through the church, the green tracksuits and damp towels her parents wear on their heads, an uncle's attempt to swap the holy water for tap water. Her older sister has run away; Chihiro still drinks the water and goes to the meetings. She also has a couple of school friends, a crush on her teacher, entrance exams ahead, and neighbours who treat her mother and father as oddities.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

220 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Coming of age (assigned by AI)

First published

2017 by Asahi Shimbun Publications

Author's age

37 when first published

ISBN

9784022514745 (original)