Disappeared in the moonlight

Author: Sasaki Hotoko
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: This book consists of four short stories: "Disappearing in the Moonlight," "Climbing High," "Distant Sounds," and "Play the Flute." It was awarded the 38th Shogakukan Children's Publishing Culture Award in Japan. The four stories have different contents, but all tell "real" stories that occur in the "everyday world" and the "extraordinary world." In "Disappearing in the Moonlight," the elderly Mr. Wada, who is clearly dead, appears to "me" on a moonlit night amidst a crowd of cats. In "Climbing High," a girl climbs up to the 12th floor along the inner wall of a high-rise apartment in her dream, and this scene is exactly replicated in real life. In "Distant Sounds," the deceased Masahiko keeps calling the family, and in the phone calls, he only says one sentence: "How do I go to play?" In "Play the Flute," Uncle Anman, who has been dead for a year, visits "me" in the room again to fulfill his promise to his younger sister to play the flute together.