Strangers (Taichi Yamada novel)

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 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.

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).

A movie based on the novel and directed by Obayashi Nobuhiko was released in 1988.

Plot

The leading character, who writes in the first person, meets a couple who bear an eirie resemblance to his dead parents, and forms a friendship with them, visiting them often. As his health declines, he comes to realise that they are ghosts who are sapping his life-force.

External links

• http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/japannew/yamadat.htm
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125217/ IMDB entry for the 1988 Japanese film version
• http://www.authortrek.com/taichi_yamada_page.html
• http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-longlist-for-this-years-independent-foreign-fiction-prize-523715.html