The Love We Share Without Knowing: A NovelIn this haunting, richly woven novel of modern life in Japan, the author of the acclaimed debut One for Sorrow explores the ties that bind humanity across the deepest divides. Here is a Murakamiesque jewel box of intertwined narratives in which the lives of several strangers are gently linked through love, loss, and fate. On a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one. In a small village a disaffected American teenager stranded in a strange land discovers compassion after an encounter with an enigmatic red fox, and in Tokyo a girl named Love learns the deepest lessons about its true meaning from a coma patient lost in dreams of an affair gone wrong. From the neon colors of Tokyo, with its game centers and karaoke bars, to the bamboo groves and hidden shrines of the countryside, these souls and others mingle, revealing a profound tale of connection—uncovering the love we share without knowing. Exquisitely perceptive and deeply affecting, Barzak’s artful storytelling deftly illuminates the inner lives of those attempting to find—or lose—themselves in an often incomprehensible world. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Section 2 | 23 |
Section 3 | 25 |
Section 4 | 57 |
Section 5 | 59 |
Section 6 | 68 |
Section 7 | 70 |
Section 8 | 79 |
Section 22 | 180 |
Section 23 | 190 |
Section 24 | 192 |
Section 25 | 197 |
Section 26 | 201 |
Section 27 | 224 |
Section 28 | 234 |
Section 29 | 238 |
Section 9 | 90 |
Section 10 | 93 |
Section 11 | 104 |
Section 12 | 143 |
Section 13 | 149 |
Section 14 | 153 |
Section 15 | 155 |
Section 16 | 164 |
Section 17 | 166 |
Section 18 | 169 |
Section 19 | 170 |
Section 20 | 173 |
Section 21 | 178 |
Section 30 | 241 |
Section 31 | 247 |
Section 32 | 251 |
Section 33 | 253 |
Section 34 | 262 |
Section 35 | 264 |
Section 36 | 268 |
Section 37 | 280 |
Section 38 | 281 |
Section 39 | 287 |
Section 40 | 289 |
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Common terms and phrases
7-Eleven American Asami asked blinked brothers called Christopher Barzak Danny dark door dreams English everything eyes face father feel felt friends front futon gaijin girl hair hand Hannah happened head hear Hitomi Ibaraki prefecture inside Japan Japanese Jules kanji karaoke Kazuko looked Kenji kids kiss kitsune knew Koichi Yamamoto kokujin lanterns later laugh Laurie leave listen live love hotel mean Midori Miyuki months morning mother never night Nobuo nodded Obon okay pulled realized red fox salaryman Shinjuku shoulder shrine sitting sleep smile someone sometimes sorry speak spoke staring stood stopped story street suicide sure Tadashi talk teachers tell Thank things thought Tokyo told took train trying Tsuchiura City turned Ushiku Utada Hikaru voice waiting walked wanted watching What's window woman wondered words worry Yamamoto sensei Yusuke