終わらざる夏 上

by Jirō Asada

１９４５年、夏。すでに沖縄は陥落し、本土決戦用の大規模な動員計画に、国民は疲弊していた。東京の出版社に勤める翻訳書編集者・片岡直哉は、４５歳の兵役年限直前に赤紙を受け取る。何も分からぬまま、同じく召集された医師の菊池、歴戦の軍曹・鬼熊と、片岡は北の地へと向かった。――終戦直後の“知られざる戦い”を舞台に「戦争」の理不尽を描く歴史的大作、待望の文庫化。第６４回毎日出版文化賞受賞作。

311 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Jirō Asada (浅田 次郎, born December 13, 1951 in Tokyo) is the pen name of Kōjirō Iwato (岩戸 康次郎), a Japanese writer.

Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'état among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the SDF after finishing his studies. He changed jobs many times while endeavoring to find writing opportunities, submitting his works to literary competitions.

In 1991, his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!) started his literary career. After writing several picaresque novels, his novel Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) was awarded the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for New Writers and made into a 2006 film; a short story collection The Stationmaster and other stories (Poppoya (鉄道員)) was also awarded the Naoki Prize.

He writes not only standard fiction and picaresque novels, but also writes historical and Chinese historical novels such as The Firmament of the Pleiades (Sōkyū no subaru, 蒼穹の昴).