قصة الكتاب :
Shōgakukan (Shōgakukan Bunko), 2010. 315 pp. ¥619. ISBN 978-
4-09-408556-3.
Satō Yasushi
Born in Hokkaidō Prefecture in 1949. Was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize five times,
including for “Kimi no tori wa utaeru” [Your Bird Can Sing]. Soko nomi ni te hikari kagayaku
[The Light Shines Only There] was nominated for the 2nd Mishima Yukio Prize. He took
his own life in 1990. In 2010, Kaitan-shi jokei was made into a film. Also, Mō hitotsu no asa:
Satō Yasushi shoki sakuhin-shū [One More Morning: The Early Works of Satō Yasushi] was
published in 2011.

This novel is set in a town surrounded by the ocean, apparently Hakodate, in
Hokkaidō. On the edge of the town is a small mountain that attracts many tourists
with the night view from its summit, accessible via aerial tram. In the late
1980s, however, unable to find its way out of a structural depression, the town
quickly began to lose its vitality and its vision for the future. With a deeply sympathetic
touch, the novel successively depicts the figures of 18 “ordinary people”
doing their best to survive in this environment and links them together in a large
chain.
The young man who is laid off from the coal mine. The junior high school
student who skips school and wanders around town alone. The streetcar operator
nearing retirement age. The bare-chested sailor who bursts into a bar late one night
in the middle of winter. The office worker addicted to horse racing. Through the
figures of such people, who have no connection to each other apart from living in
the same town, this novel makes us clearly aware of the smell of the ocean and
the light of the northern country that pervades their lives, and it brings into bold
relief the truth of life’s preciousness.
The author committed suicide before this book was published. Although this
is a novel that uncovers the profound sadness and despair held by common people,
it is also a tale in which signs of hope shine brightly in many places—just like the
“diamond dust” that breathes luminous life into the mountains in winter. Additionally,
the 2010 film adaptation, directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi, has been
praised as a masterpiece that preserves the flavor of the original work. (NK)