あひる

by Natsuko Imamura, 今村 夏子

読み始めると心がざわつく。
何気ない日常の、ふわりとした安堵感にふとさしこむ影。
淡々と描かれる暮らしのなか、綻びや継ぎ目が露わになる。

あひるを飼うことになった家族と学校帰りに集まってくる子供たち。一瞬幸せな日常の危うさが描かれた「あひる」。おばあちゃんと孫たち、近所の兄妹とのふれあいを通して、揺れ動く子供たちの心の在り様を、あたたかくそして鋭く描く「おばあちゃんの家」「森の兄妹」の3編を収録。

144 pages, Hardcover

First published November 18, 2016

About the author

See: 今村 夏子

Natsuko Imamura is a Japanese writer. She has been nominated three times for the Akutagawa Prize, and won the prize in 2019. She has also won the Dazai Osamu Prize, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kawai Hayao Story Prize, and the Noma Literary New Face Prize.

Reviews

[Katie (inactive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories.
My favorite was definitely the title piece, "Ahiru" (Duck), but I enjoyed all three of them to a near equal extent. Imamura's writing is so simple. It's so easy to read, so you can get through her stories quickly. But it feels as if there's a hidden layer to her writing which is quite haunting at times.
To be perfectly honest, I can't fully grasp the true meaning behind her stories, especially "Ahiru". Usually that doesn't work well for me, but in this case it did. There's something about the speculative aspect that Imamura captured very well. I'd love to hear others' thoughts and opinions on this story collection.

Honestly picked this up just because it was mentioned by name in 花束みたいな恋をした, which I read and loved last year. Now I realize exactly why it was brought up, because her works are so impactful and leave a lot of room open for discussion.

[Vj · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think many readers are right to point out that imamura's writing comes off as creepy, but i'm not so sure that the descriptor is entirely accurate. it seems more likely an affectation her very simplistic, almost fairytale-like prose. how she presents the text is innocent and naive, but underneath it all is a vast ocean of emotional depth. that distance is the same sort of creepiness you find in classic stories like Hansel and Gretel. yet imamura doesn't really tread in that territory and instead of writing about honesty being exploited, she seems to be more interested in the human anomaly. the stories in あひる are inexplicable, but that stems from imamura's point of view: humans are irrational, emotional, and weird. many times, we don't understand each other, but imamura seems to know exactly in what ways we don't.

[Timothy Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

「あひるはおそらくは親しみやすく印象的な姿ゆえに、愛される存在であり、その姿ゆえに交換可能である。それを人間に置き換えると慄然とするのではないだろうか。」

Do we love the duck or the idea of the duck? The same could be asked about family, friends, a lover? How much meaning is there when we use the word “irreplaceable”?

Interesting questions (among others) posited in an otherwise innocent collection of short stories.