“Light, even artificial light, has a way of exposing things.” Chapter 1: April – The Apartment The unnamed protagonist, a recently separated woman, moves into a sunlit fourth-floor […]
Japanese literature
Diary of a Mad Old Man
“Old age is a shipwreck.” Diary of a Mad Old Man follows the aging protagonist Tokusuke Utsugi, a wealthy retired businessman who keeps a diary detailing his physical […]
Japanese literature
After the Quake
“The earth shook for precisely seventeen seconds. Exactly seventeen seconds—no more, no less.” UFO in Kushiro Komura’s wife leaves him after the Kobe earthquake, claiming he is “empty.” […]
Japanese literature
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“I think I’m afraid of being truly happy. Because whenever I get too happy, something bad always happens.” Chapter 1: Tsukuru Tazaki’s Past Tsukuru Tazaki, a 36-year-old railway […]