コルバトントリ

A primary-school boy tells the story. His mother died when a car struck her, and his father, once jailed, is now a hospital patient. He lives with his aunt, scarred as a child by hot oil his mother threw from a window. One day he sets out for his father's bedside, and the story follows him there and home again. On the way he meets a teenage tearaway, a girl as slight as a fawn, a drunk old neighbour and an elderly guardian of the moon, and finally his own parents as children. Time and point of view slip freely, blurring where life ends and death begins, where people end and beasts begin, and where then turns into now, under a soft rain.

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About the book

Form

Novella

Length

107 pages in the original

First published

2013 by Bungeishunju

Author's age

47 when first published

ISBN

9784163900285 (original)