Y Life Path

Author: (Japanese) Masayu Sato, translated by Zhang Jiwen and Xie Honghui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: The protagonist of the novel, Akima Fumio, works at a publishing house. His wife, Tomoko, is a ballet teacher and has just separated from him with their daughter. Akima has a mistress named Nishiki. On a rainy night in 1998, Akima suddenly receives a call from a mysterious man named Kitagawa Ken, who claims to be his high school classmate, followed by receiving a floppy disk from him. By reading the story recorded on the disk, Akima experiences an incredible world and gradually becomes drawn into it. His real life and the world described in the story intertwine, causing him to reexamine his own life. The other protagonist of the novel, Kitagawa Ken, met a girl who lost her parents in a train accident when he was young. They got married and had two children, living a seemingly peaceful life. However, he has been tormented by a deep sense of guilt. Eighteen years ago, he met a ballet student and, due to a momentary lapse, caused her to be involved in a train accident. The girl suffered leg injuries and had to give up ballet, eventually taking her own life in agony seven years later. He has been praying to save her ever since. He asks Akima to witness him travel to a past life—to make another choice and live a different life. Through the form of reading the story recorded on the disk, the author describes the fates of the four main characters: Akima, Kitagawa, and their respective wives. A train accident marks the beginning of their completely different lives. The train accident becomes a divergence point, like the two branches above the letter "Y," symbolizing the protagonists' experiences of two different lives.