قصة الكتاب :
Shūeisha (Shūeisha Bunko), 2012. 200 pp. ¥400. ISBN 978-4-08-
746798-7.
Originally published in Subaru, Nov. 2008.
Nakamura Fuminori
Born in 1977. His debut novel Jū [The Gun] won the Shinchō New
Author Prize in 2002. Also received the Noma Prize for New Writers
in 2004 for Shakō [The Shade].Winner of the Akutagawa Prize
in 2005 for Tsuchi no naka no kodomo [Child in the Ground]. Suri
[Pickpocket] won the Ōe Kenzaburō Prize in 2010. His other works
include Sekai no hate [The Far End of the World], Ōkoku [Kingdom],
and Meikyū [Labyrinth].

Since his debut, Nakamura Fuminori has staked out unusual ground for a young
writer by exploring crime, murder, suicide, child abuse and neglect, and other
problems plaguing modern Japanese society. His latest work is no exception. The
main character, a young man working as a guard in a rural prison, spends his days
dealing with the convicts there.
The protagonist was raised in an orphanage and has his own dark past, including
an attempt on his own life. Thanks to the influence of the good-hearted orphanage
director, he found the will to live and was able to reach adulthood, but a
friend was not so fortunate: written on his suicide note were the words “On a
night when all is misery.”
The protagonist finds himself troubled by the case of a convicted murderer
incarcerated at the prison. Still a minor, the convict merely waits resignedly for
his death sentence to be carried out. Why does he not fight his conviction? Does
he deserve to die? Is the death penalty justifiable in the first place? The main
character confronts such questions, to which there are no easy answers.
The publication of this work was timely: Japan had just announced a lay judge
system (to be launched in 2009) in which citizens serve as de facto jurors, leading
to heightened consciousness of how trials are conducted and culpability assessed.
Debate about capital punishment has also grown heated in recent years. In the
context of these social developments, this novel takes on a significance reaching
beyond that of a mere work of fiction. (NM)