Strangers

Product Information

Hideo's visits to the people who resemble his parents so closely turns out to come at a high but confusing cost, appearing -- to others -- to sap the life out of him, though he himself remains largely oblivious to this. Strangers is written with a clarity I have come to recognise as Japanese." - Kate Kellaway, The Observer Strangers" was one of those books that has been left behind by another traveler on the shelf of an Airbnb apartment. Me, always being curious about what kind of reads others bring along on their vacations, decided to take it along for a couple of days at the beach. Ijintachi to no natsu has also been translated into German as Sommer mit Fremden, French as Présences d'un été and Swedish as Främlingar (2009).

The old neighbourhood has, of course, changed dramatically since then, but he's still somehow drawn to it. Strangers (Japanese title Ijintachi to no natsu 異人たちとの夏 Summer of the Strange People) is a novel by Taichi Yamada, published in 1987. The English translation by Wayne Lammers was published in 2003. The impact of All of Us Strangers will likely vary wildly depending on the beholder. With such a despairing thesis, the film may seem awfully foreign to some younger queer people who, while no doubt still suffering the batterings of an often hostile world, can’t quite identify with Adam’s internal wrestling: his fear, his coded shame, his hermetic longing. Older viewers may run headlong toward the film’s despondency, finding solace, even catharsis, in its haunting ache. A) story that pens in spare strokes a portrait of urban alienation. (...) Less subtle, unfortunately, are the vagaries of the translation into American English. (...) What survives, however, is a memorably uncanny tapestry, and a powerful atmosphere, of heat and rain and sorrow." - Steven Poole, The Guardian As the book turns from character study to an eerie ghost story, I realized that I found myself invested in Hideo’s relationship with his parents. In one heartbreaking scene where Hideo and his parents decide to eat out for dinner at an expensive restaurant, Mr. Yamada creates a chapter of unbearable heartbreak and finality that makes this novel worth reading. I did not expect this scene to come out so affectingly, but it is the best part of the novel. I understood all at once that although goodbyes must be made—it’s never easy to write the least.related in a pared-down prose style that matches well with Harada’s spartan life. He’s doesn’t seem to have any friends, he has lost touch with his only son and has no interest other than working on the script for a new series. Understandable therefore that he feels the pull towards this other surreal world. This is a strange little book. The protagonist, Harada, is a middle aged screenwriter, orphaned aged twelve when his parents are killed in a traffic accident. Recently divorced, he throws himself into his work. He is tired and lonely. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9824 Ocr_module_version 0.0.7 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA400055 Openlibrary_edition La trama è molto coinvolgente ma bisogna accettare i lati surreali (un altro giapponese letto faceva vedere il mondo dal punto di vista del gatto di casa, quindi basta abituarsi). Devo riconoscere che ci sono alcune "sbavature" nel racconto che non collegano bene i due filoni principali, 'genitori e amica", questo mi ha lasciato un po' perplesso (ma non posso svelare il contenuto). This book is a thinking man’s ghost story in the vein of The Turn of the Screw, and its rich pathos should delight fans of King’s warmer fare. Strangers by Taichi Yamada – eBook Details

As an exploration of the power of delusion, Strangers is not without interest. As a ghost story, however, it is not very frightening." - William Skidelsky, Times Literary Supplement How can that be possible he wonders? There is only one possible explanation he concludes – they are an hallucination caused by his solitude and grief. He thought he’d buried his grief for his parents but seeing them makes him realise that “Somewhere deep inside of me I had been yearning desperately for the warm embrace of parental love. Taichi Yamada este unul dintre cei mai cunoscuti scriitori si scenaristi japonezi. A avut succes si a fost rasplatit cu premii pentru activitatea la studioul de film Shochiku, dar si ca scriitor. A scris romane ca "N-am mai visat de mult ca zbor", "In cautarea unei voci indepartate" ori "Straini". I really enjoyed the haunting mood of Strangers. It somehow maintains a calm tone at the same time as feeling quite fast-paced, and the climactic moments are especially great. A psychological ghost story that's both chilling and unexpectedly comforting.

The Japanese original won the 1987 Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for best human-interest novel. The English translation was one of sixteen works long-listed for the 2006 Foreign Fiction prize awarded by The Independent. Kei isn’t convinced his trips to Asakusa are good for his health. She sees Heido changing day-by-day, becoming hollow-eyed, aged and emaciated. She’s even more worried because Heido himself cannot see these changes – when he looks at himself in the mirror he looks as healthy as ever. Can Kei save him from the ghosts of his past? Or is his desire to make up for the lost years of his relationship with his parents too strong to resist? Then he meets a man who looks and sounds just like his father, and whose wife looks and sounds like his mother. They even call him son. But they are in their early thirties, the age his parents were when they died. This cannot be right. Hideo is amazed and confused, but he's also drawn to the couple, and they treat him -- despite the fact that he's ten or more years older than they are -- like their son.

The reliance on the supernatural -- which is occasionally simply too clumsy or simplistic -- is irritating, but for the most part Yamada does tell his story effectively. On the night of his birthday, hit by a wave of nostalgia, he visits the entertainment district of Asakusa where he grew up. His parents died many years ago, killed in a road accident when he was 12 and they were in their mid thirties. In the old and now run-down streets he goes to the theatre where he sees a mediocre comedian. In the audience he is astonished to see a man who looks exactly like his long-dead sushi chef father. Invited for drinks at the man’s home, Harada is even more astounded to find that the wife looks exactly like his dead mother. They’re the same age as his parents were when they died. The surprising additional twist to the story also isn't at all believable (even allowing for some of the supernatural effects the actual occurrences are too unlikely and unreal) -- but it's eery and effective enough that one makes allowances for it.

Putem sa interpretam in mai multe feluri aceste elemente de supranatural: am putea crede ca eroul sufera de o tulburare psihica in care mintea sa cauta un refugiu confortabil in trecut, in copilarie, in parinti, atunci cand trece printr-o trauma cum ar fi un divort. Este firesc ca pacientul sa gestioneze necazul refugiindu-se intr-un loc unde s-a simtit bine. Dar atunci ar fi greu de explicat prezenta femeii cu cicatrice. Daca fortam un pic interpretarea putem spune ca ea reprezinta constiinta, vinovatia lui. About the Book: Strangers by Taichi Yamada was first published in Japanese as Ijin-tachi to no Natsu in 1987. It won the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, an award made each year to new work of fiction considered to exemplify the art of storytelling,. The novel was translated into English in 2003. My 2006 edition, translated by Wayne P Lammers, is from Faber. We learn his life’s been marked by constant tragedy: he loses his parents when he was 12 to an accident; he lives with his grandfather out in the country, eventually losing him too. Finally, it is an uncle of his who helps him with his college tuition as he comes of age without much of a family unit to complete him. In reading these early scenes, it reminded me too much of films or books where it is usually about a lonely male protagonist who finds himself in a noirish situation where he falls for a mysterious woman who awakens what’s dead inside. I was partially correct: Hideo is entranced by his waiflike neighbor Kei and the two begin an affair. Hideo loves touching Kei’s bottom parts complete with moles that show his desire to love physically. I shuddered thinking this would become a book about the exposure of male glaze that I was fearing. So, this is the moment where Hideo falls for Kei, at least physically. Strangely enough, this book began tepidly. This is the story of lonely TV writer, Hideo who is approaching middle age. Set in Japan during the 1980s outside of Kyoto, Hideo lives a mundane life of where everything seems to be all laid out for him. Estranged from his son, Shigeki, at odds with his ex-wife Ayako for dating who’s now engaged to his occasional friend and co-worker, Mamiya, Hideo spends his time in solitude, concealing his feelings—whether it be anger, or confusion.

Only by allowing colleagues, friends, and family -- all of whom he had largely abandoned or allowed to drift away -- to help can he be saved. In news designed to make homosexuals make weird sounds when they hear it: Looking and Weekend creator Andrew Haigh’s new movie includes Fleabag’s sexy priest, Andrew Scott, and Normal People’s sexy shorts wearer, Paul Mescal, in a loose adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel, Strangers. Also starring in the cast are The Crown’s Claire Foy and Kate Mara’s Jamie Bell. Foy has plenty of reasons to shout “A bunch of boys!” again. And the trailer for the film is just as sensual, gorgeous, and gay as any self-respecting homosexual might hope. Strangers has also been made into a movie, Ijintachi to no Natsu (1988), directed by Obayashi Nobuhiko, and apparently released in the US under the titles The Discarnates and Summer Among the Zombies The 2023 English-language film All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh, is also based on the novel.stata una bella sorpresa, ho scelto questo libro "a caso" fidandomi solo della mia simpatia per i giapponesi, ed a conferma ho incontrato una storia Kafkchiana con la tipica venatura ironica giapponese (possono narrare qualsiasi argomento che io li percepisco come un po' frivoli, autoironici, che in fondo la prendono alla leggera, non danno molto peso alla cosa, non so spiegarlo bene questo atteggiamento, comunque mi piace).