Don't laugh at others' love.

Author: (Japanese) Yamazaki
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Alternative love, "I have my own principles," a 100% helpless love story, a deep affection spanning 20 years. I crave love, yet no one is there to embrace me. That feeling is like being in the middle of a desert, utterly empty. My heart has a hole, a hole perhaps a woman could fill. A 19-year-old boy falls in love with a 39-year-old woman. They meet at an art school, where he is a student and she is a teacher. At a classmate's party, a slightly tipsy woman suddenly confesses her love to the boy on the way home. On the surface, they are teacher and student, but in secret, they are lovers. As the woman's husband, who is 13 years older, is about to expose their relationship, what should the woman do? How should the boy end this love story with no conclusion? When it ends, he will remember how it began. "When does love quietly draw to a close?" Even today, I still don't know." The boy's helpless confession confirms that the moments of love's occurrence and continuation are always unpredictable; and the feeling of loss is the same for everyone. Therefore, please, please don't laugh at our love. After the novel was published in Japan, it received widespread attention, selling 100,000 copies in just three months, and becoming a nomination for Japan's highest literary award—the Naoki Prize.