異人たちとの夏

妻子と別れ、孤独な日々を送るシナリオ・ライターは、幼い頃死別した父母とそっくりな夫婦に出逢った。こみあげてくる懐かしさ。心安らぐ不思議な団欒。しかし、年若い恋人は「もう決して彼らと逢わないで」と懇願した…。静かすぎる都会の一夏、異界の人々との交渉を、ファンタスティックに、鬼気迫る筆で描き出す、名手山田太一の新しい小説世界。第一回山本周五郎賞受賞作品。
When jaded 48-year-old scriptwriter Harada visits Tokyo's old entertainment district where he grew up, he encounters a likeable working man who is the spitting image of his dead father. Lonely, nostalgic, and willing to believe the unbelievable, Harada follows the mysterious man, embarking on a bittersweet journey into the womb of a city whose living inhabitants have perhaps changed too rapidly and lost their souls. While the visits to his parents seem invigorating to Harada, his beautiful and strangely vulnerable neighbor Kei insists that he stop seeing them for his own good. A battle for the soul - Harada's, a tired city's - ensues in this thinking man's ghost story.