차가운 학교의 시간은 멈춘다 - 하

冷たい校舎の時は止まる [Tsumetai Kousha no Toki wa Todomaru] (Novel) (2 Volumes) #2

by Mizuki Tsujimura, 이윤정 (Translator)

제147회 나오키상을 수상하며, 일본 문학의 중심에 우뚝 선 츠지무라 미즈키. 그녀를 있게 한 제31회 메피스토상 수상작이며 충격적인 데뷔작. 눈이 내리는 어느 겨울날. 수험 준비가 한창인 3학년 2반 학생들은 평소처럼 등교한다. 하지만 그날 학교에 온 사람은 평소에 사이가 좋았던 여덟 사람뿐. 수업 시작종도 울리지 않고 여덟 명 외에는 인기척도 없다.

눈이 많이 와서 휴교가 된 것일까. 돌아가려던 학생들은 학교 문이 열리지 않는다는 사실을 깨닫는다. 창문도 열리지 않고, 심지어는 깨지지도 않는다. 휴대전화는 불통, 그리고 어느 순간 학교 안의 모든 시계가 5시 53분을 가리키며 멈춘다. 혼란에 빠지는 학생들. 갇힌 거나 다름없는 텅 빈 학교 안에서 그들 중 한 사람이 두 달 전에 자살한 급우 이야기를 꺼낸다.

그리고 그들은 이내 깨닫는다. 자신들 중 어느 누구도 자살한 친구의 이름을 기억하지 못한다는 것과 지금 이곳에 있는 자신들이 원래 7명이어야 한다는 사실을…

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy

416 pages, Hardcover

First published August 10, 2007

About the author

Associated Names:
* Mizuki Tsujimura
* 辻村深月 (Japanese)

Tsujimura is an award-winning novelist, she is best known for her mystery and children novels. She studied at Chiba University and won the Naoki Prize in 2012 for Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru (I Saw a Dream Without a Key), and in 2018 she won the Japan Booksellers' Award for her novel Kagami no Kojo (Lonely Castle in the Mirror).

Reviews

[Mizuki]

It's so damn disappointing!! By the end of this book I just don't care about the characters, their internal conflicts and their guilt issues anymore! 1.5 stars.

[空]

Thank god I am finally done. Started 冷たい校舎の時は止まる on the strength of her other book, おおかみの孤城. But unfortunately for this book, I was more bored than anything.

● It took approximately 3 million years to ‘reveal’ who among them was ‘dead’, only for the book to twist around and say, ‘Psych! Not really!’

● The characters were okay. For some reason I had more difficulty feeling for them than my tiny children in おおかみ. Like, I wasn’t interested in finding out more about them, their dreams, hopes, desires, fears, and sufferings. I was like, ‘yeah okay that’s cool. Next!’

● There were some moving moments, times when I was like, ‘I can relate to that. That’s fucking tough.’ But there were more moments where I was like, ‘Please let’s get this over with, I have other books to read.’

In conclusion: I don’t regret reading it, but I am never going to want to read this again, unlike おおかみ, which I conceivably would want to reread sometime in the future.

[Asuka]

Poignant is the best word I can use to describe this book. The answer to the mystery was unexpired but I loved how separate stories all fell into a place. The story of Sugawara gave me the similar feel to that of Henry Winters (Secret History) which is a huge deal. Highly recommended.

[Heather]

Definitely not my favorite of Tsujimura Mizuki's but it was definitely interesting! I still don't know which volume I prefer 🤔

[Erika]

It didn’t need to be THIS long.
The more I read about the characters the less I cared about them.
And the fact that the needy “メンヘラ” girl has the same name as the author was just weird. And not in a good way.

I can see the similarities between this book and this author’s famous book “the lonely castle in the mirror”. The excruciatingly detailed and slow first half, and a mild plot twist at the end.
I’m glad the author learned how to edit her story.