| NOTA |
(*)(trans. by Wayne P. Lammers) (★)(This compelling novel, widely acclaimed for its perceptive portrayal of the everyday lives and struggles of Japanese women, struck a deep chord with readers throughout Japan. In 2005 it won the prestigious Naoki Prize, awarded semiannually for the best work of popular fiction by an established writer. Sayoko, a thirty-five-year-old homemaker with a three-year-old child, begins working for Aoi, a free-spirited, single career woman her own age who runs a travel agency-housekeeping business. Timid and unable to connect with other mothers in her neighborhood, Sayoko finds herself drawn to Aoi´s independent lifestyle and easygoing personality. The two hit it off from the start, beginning a friendship that is for Sayoko also a reaffirmation of what living is about. Aoi, meanwhile, has not always been the self-confident person she appears to be. Severe classroom bullying in junior high had forced her to change schools, uprooting her and her family to the countryside ; and at her new school, she was so afraid of again becoming the object of her classmates´ cruelties that she spent most of her time steering clear of those around her. The present-day friendship between Sayoko and Aoi on the one hand, and Aoi´s painful high school past on the other, form a gripping two-tier narrative that converges in the final chapter. The book touches on a broad range of issues of concern to women today, from marriage and child-rearing to being single and working for oneself. It is a universal story about both the fear and the joy of opening up to others.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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