ホモサピエンスの瞬間

Every week an acupuncturist calls at a home for the elderly to give massage as part of the residents' therapy. One old man, whom he refers to by an invented name, Isoyamada, has a neck locked solid, and as the knots ease, the man's past in Japan's war with China begins to come out. A ghostly girl's voice asks whether it is right to slip back into being an animal in human shape. The neck, joining head to body, becomes an image of the link between Japan and the Asian mainland, and the treatment a hope of freeing what is blocked between them, met with humour and a light hand.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novella

Length

124 pages in the original

Genres

War (assigned by AI)

Set in

Japan

First published

2015 by Bungeishunju

Author's age

33 when first published

ISBN

9784163904139 (original)