قصة الكتاب :
Shūeisha (Shūeisha Bunko), 2014. Vol. I: 352 pp. ¥600. ISBN 978-
4-08-745150-4. Vol. II: 336 pp. ¥600. ISBN 978-4-08-745151-1.
Ekuni Kaori
Born in Tokyo in 1964. After graduating from junior college, attended
the Athénée Français language school before studying abroad
in the United States. Made her debut as a children’s writer in 1987
and has gone on to be active in a variety of literary fields. Has won
numerous prizes, including the Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature
for Kirakira hikaru [trans. Twinkle Twinkle] and the Naoki Prize
for Gōkyū suru junbi wa dekite ita [I Was Prepared to Wail]. Many
of her works have been adapted for television and film.

This is the story of the Yanagishima family, who live in Kamiyachō, an area near
Tokyo Tower where embassies are clustered. The Yanagishimas lead a lifestyle very
different from that of a typical Japanese family, dwelling in a Taishō era (1912–26)
Western-style house almost like an art museum. For one thing, they are always
hugging, which seems a very Western and somewhat odd habit to the people
around them. What is more, the four children do not attend school. The parents
believe that compulsory education only means they must provide education to
their children, and that it is fine to do so at home. Based on this policy, they hire
tutors to educate their children thoroughly. It is clear that this family has a distinctive,
one might say aristocratic, view of duty. Gradually, the reader figures out that
this refined and close household is of a composite nature, including children from
extramarital affairs by both husband and wife.
Ekuni Kaori jumps easily backward and forward through time as she portrays
this family and its rebellion against the standardization of Japanese society. Skillfully
interweaving the proud and freedom-loving voices of family members with
the testimony of outsiders, the story is filled with the interest and excitement of
multiple perspectives. Ultimately, as time moves on, family ties begin to unravel
as members pass away or find partners and leave home. In lyrical sentences, Ekuni
movingly depicts this utopian family thoroughly until its last days. (NK)