قصة الكتاب :
Shūeisha (Shūeisha Bunko), 2012. 256 pp. ¥476. ISBN 978-4-08- 746817-5.
Originally published in Shōsetsu Subaru, Dec. 2009 (excerpted works).
Asai Ryō
Born in 1989. While attending Waseda University, won the 2009
Shōsetsu Subaru Prize for New Writers for this novel, his debut as
a writer. Other works include Chia danshi!! [Cheerleading Boys!],
Hoshiyadori no koe [The Voices of the Hoshiyadori Café], Mō
ichido umareru [Being Born Again], and Shōjo wa sotsugyō shinai
[Girls Never Graduate]. In 2013 won the 148th Naoki Prize for
Nanimono [Somebody].

When the volleyball club’s Kirishima—“the captain we can count on”—suddenly
retires from club activities, it has a small but palpable ripple effect on the lives of
five other students at a provincial high school. “Club activities” is the key phrase
that links five members of as many different clubs—baseball, volleyball, brass band,
girls’ softball, and film—in a variety of ways.
Readers will first of all be drawn in by the novel’s rhythm and language; they
will also appreciate the vivid imagery conjured by its numerous metaphors. While
writing that contains many metaphorical expressions can be difficult to read if
poorly rendered, in this work they communicate with brilliant clarity the atmosphere
of the world of 17-year-old high school students and their unstable emotions.
The energetic flow of language has the same effect as listening to a J-pop tune;
catching the rhythm of this groovy melody brings lifelike depictions of the young
characters into sharp focus.
With the depiction of each character’s frustrations and joys, a realistic portrayal
of a group of students takes shape in bold, three-dimensional relief thanks to the
author’s clever compositions. Such is the degree of perfection that it is hard to
believe this is the debut novel of a 20-year-old writer. This work is a masterpiece
among novels of adolescence. (MT)