قصة الكتاب :
Bungeishunjū, 2014. 144 pp. ¥1,300. ISBN 978-4-16-390101-5.
Shibasaki Tomoka
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1973. Her 2000 debut novel Kyō no
dekigoto [What Happened Today] came to prominence after it was
made into a film. Received the Oda Sakunosuke Prize and the Minister
of Education Encouragement Prize for New Artists in 2007 for
Sono machi no ima wa [What That Town Is Today], the Noma Prize
for New Writers in 2010 for Nete mo samete mo [Sleeping and Waking],
and the Akutagawa Prize in 2014 for Haru no niwa. Other
works include Shōto katto [Short Cut] and Shudaika [Main Theme].

Following his divorce, Tarō moves into the View Palace Saeki III, a decrepit twostory
apartment building scheduled for demolition. The eight units are cramped,
and most of the residents live alone. One day Tarō notices Nishi, a tenant on the
apartment’s second floor, gazing wistfully at the light-blue house next door.
Nishi is an unsuccessful manga artist who became fascinated by the light-blue
house and the life of the family living there after discovering it in a collection of
photographs titled Haru no niwa when she was a high-school student. Unable to
forget the house after moving out to live on her own, she tracked it down and
moved in next door.
The story is nested in structure. Nishi delves into the lives of the couple who
built and lived in the house before leaving it behind, and she becomes friends with
the new owner so that she can see inside. Tarō watches this carefully. Finally,
another layer is added when Tarō’s sister is seen observing the other two characters.
The light-blue house and the apartment building are the story’s real protagonists,
with space itself playing the central role, transected by the characters who appear
in the story. With precise descriptions and a finely calibrated sense of space, the
author makes a bold experiment a resounding success.
The human characters are not just supporting roles, though. Tarō, Nishi, and
the couple who built the light-blue house all have experienced the breakup of their
households. Love, family, and everyday life are as fragile as glass: that is the message,
conveyed with great emotional power, through this story of a house. It is a
fairy tale for adults about the memory of past injuries and journeys of healing.
(CK)
Haru no niwa
[Spring Garden]
By Shibasaki Tomoka
Bungeishunjū, 2014. 144 pp. ¥1,300. ISBN 978-4-16-390101-5.
春の庭
柴崎 友香
文藝春秋／2014年／144ページ／本体1300円／ISBN 978-4-16-390101-5
Also