Even If This Love Disappears Tonight

by Misaki Ichijo

제26회 전격소설대상 ‘미디어워크스문고상’ 수상작
총 4,607편의 응모 작품 중 최고로 손꼽힌 걸작,
모든 심사위원이 눈물을 쏟은 압도적 작품!
“머리가 아플 정도로 펑펑 울고 말았다.
반드시, 반드시 읽어야 할 작품이다.” _아마존 독자평

밤에 자고 일어나면 기억이 리셋되는 ‘선행성 기억상실증’을 앓는 소녀 히노 마오리와 무미건조한 인생을 살고 있는 평범한 고등학생 가미야 도루의 풋풋하고 애틋한 사랑 이야기.

선행성 기억상실증이라는 익숙한 소재를 매우 수준 높은 청춘 소설로 탄생시켰다는 극찬을 받으며 제26회 전격소설대상 ‘미디어워크스문고상’을 수상한 이 작품은 간질간질한 청춘의 로맨스를 전혀 예측할 수 없는 국면으로 끌고 가, 깐깐하고 엄격한 심사위원 모두를 눈물 흘리게 만들었다는 흥미로운 뒷이야기를 남긴 소설이기도 하다.

“날 모르겠지만, 사귀어줄래…?” 어쩔 수 없이 건넨 도루의 거짓 고백을 “날 정말로 좋아하지 말 것. 지킬 수 있어?”라는 조건을 걸고 허락한 히노. 조건부 연애였던 두 사람의 관계는, 연인이지만 연인이 아닌 이 특수한 관계는 ‘매일 기억이 사라지는’ 잔혹한 현실을 극복해나갈 수 있을까? 이들 사랑의 끝에 어떤 결과가 기다리고 있을까?

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Young Adult, Light Novel, Contemporary, Japan, Japanese Literature

240 pages, Hardcover

First published February 20, 2020

About the author

Japanese light literary writer of light literature. She mainly writes romance novels.

Reviews

[angel]

“People live by forgetting. No matter how deep our sorrows, humans eventually forget. Wounds don’t hurt forever. […] it was all mine. The sorrow, the pain, the joy, the memories, all of it.”

[Jin]

English translation of the title:
This Night, even if Love should disappear in this World

Loved it. Fast, entertaining read about pure love of teenagers with heartbreak and tears. I can imagine that the story would be well translated into a movie or a short tv series. Even though parts of the book are cliche, the flow and pace of the story was well made. There were just some weaknesses but it was an entertaining read overall.

[daph pink ♡]

If I had only read it before seeing the movie, I definitely would have changed my mind because of the translation and the tedious storyline. I really like the movie, however the translation was appalling and didn't do the feelings justice.

[❤️‍🩹]

“Back then, there was a lot I didn't understand. On a practical level, how to tell a girl I liked her when I didn't. On a philosophical level, death. On a poetic level, love.
And then I added another thing to the list. Myself.”

Made me cry… like really hard. Wish I could read it in Japanese and fully capture the essence of the book but it was really beautiful I loved it so much

[Phu]

DNF30%
Thật sự là năm nay mình đã "mở lòng" hơn với lightnovel, sau khi đọc sách của .
Một phần khiến mình đọc cuốn sách này là cái tựa, bìa đẹp và nó sắp ra mắt Phim chuyển thể.

Về nội dung: Để cứu bạn mình thoát khỏi tình trạng bị bắt nạt, cậu học sinh trung học Toru Kamiya đã chấp nhận lời yêu cầu của Bọn bắt nạt rằng, Toru sẽ tỏ tình với cô bạn Maori Hino lớp bên cạnh. Và vô tình, nó lại bắt đầu cho một mối tình kỳ lạ.
Nhưng Toru không biết rằng, cô bạn Maori mắc phải một căn bệnh lạ sau tai nạn - cứ mỗi đêm sau khi chìm vào giấc ngủ, cô ấy sẽ quên đi mọi ký ức của ngày hôm qua. Liệu mối tình này sẽ kéo dài?

Mình thực sự cố ép bản thân, chỉ là câu chuyện nghe có vẻ buồn và đáng mong đợi. Nhưng tiếc, 30% trôi qua mà không có gì thu hút mình cả, mình cảm thấy mọi thứ thật bình thường (ngoài gia cảnh của Toru.) Mình đã hứa sẽ không add thêm cuốn sách nào vào kệ DNF, đọc không hợp thì drop. Nhưng mình nghĩ cuốn sách này có thể có hy vọng nên add vào DNF vậy.

[Anvshaaa]

"No wound vanishes completely, because wounds are also memories. But the pain won’t last forever." T_T

[meltem]

i'm done reading young adult

[Hannah]

my heart…. 💔

[yossi]

i debated with myself on how many star i should give this book and decided to go with 4 stars.

i first read this book because the movie adaptation is played by micchi and rikoㅡand i ended up loving this!

this is definitely not mindblowing oh-so-amazing piece of literature out there. the storyline is cliche and predictable. but does it take away my enjoyment? absolutely not! i enjoyed my time reading this book and i feel connection with the characters. this book make me feel something: love, happiness, sadness. a very heartwarming, yet sad story.

tooru is a great character and seeing his character growth throughout this book is amazing. the writer surely write him as a dream guy: read books, family boy, kind, care about people around him a lot, head over heels for his girlfriend and try his hardest to give her happiness, always respectful. he's perfect. and i usually hate this kind of character, but tooru was written in the best way possible that i just can't hate him!

maori's condition is interesting one. i also enjoy reading her narration and point of view. she is such a strong and cute girl! so, do izumi! i'm glad the writer also gives us her perspective as someone who see the two characters' growth.

[emma nicole ♡]

DNF AT 38%…

I really really loved it at first, but the pacing is so slow and the quotes just fell blank for me.

[Sarah | Sarah's Story Nook ⚘]

And once again, the Japanese rip my heart out with their bittersweet/tragic endings. Ugh. I'll be sobbing in the corner of my room for the rest of the day. 😭

[Megan]

There are some lovely interspective lines about the state of the world, how guilt manifests, and how we hold ourselves up; however, most of the story is told. We are told what people are feeling rather than showing it through actions or how they behave. It made the story feel very wooden, which sucks because this story could've been really impactful.

[Nadja]

this was such a good read and a great story and i cried!

[Floor Loïse]

this is such a beautiful but bittersweet story

[avriti]

So heartbreaking I wish i died when i was reading it.

[Brian McCullar]

Oh my God this book... I need to preface this review by saying, that it's the first true romance book I ever sat down to read, and the first Japanese light novel that isn't a tie-in to an anime or manga series, so I went into this not knowing what to expect, of if I'd even like it. But I have to say, I am so very happy that I picked it up.

If I had to summarize the book simply, I would say it's like if 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler was done properly, without his failed attempts at humor, and delivered on its story in a touching, deeply emotional and well executed way, though the tone does shift towards the end in a different direction from that film.

I would love to type up copious amounts of details about the story and characters, but I want to keep my review as spoiler free as possible, so I'm gonna try.

The story follows three different characters, with different chapters and different parts being from their different POVs.

First off, we have Tooru, a young man in high school with a good heart and an old soul. He stands up for people who are weaker than others, even if it puts him in harm's way, yet also remains (almost) purely practical, never thinking himself as being more capable than he is. One day (this isn't a spoiler, it's in the writeup), in order to stop a young boy from being bullied further, the bully tells him to ask out a girl from another class, and if he does, the bullying will stop.

Which brings us to our second POV character, Maori, a young girl woman who suffers from a rare condition called Anterograde Amnesia, which prevents her brain from converting her short-term memories into long-term memories, and so she has to wake up every day, and rediscover how the world around her moved forward, while she never really did. She accepts the Tooru's proposal on the conditions that he doesn't talk to her til after school, keeps conversations short, and doesn't fall in love with her. Again, no spoilers here, it's in the book writeup.

And finally, our third POV character is Maori's best friend, a young woman named Izumi, who is one of the only people to know of Maori's condition, and is fiercely protective of her, always seeking to make sure that her secrets are kept safe and that she's treated properly.

Throughout the course of this book, we watch these three young people bond together, grow together and even suffer together, in various different ways. I can't say much about the events within the plot themselves, because they would spoil the book and I desperately don't want to do that to anybody. What I will say, is that I'm someone who often snubs romance stories, and never managed to get into one in my life, but by the last few chapters in this book, I smiled, I laughed and multiple times, I cried, for a variety of reasons. Partly because I relate very personally to Tooru, as he experiences a certain medical condition himself, that I also have to deal with in my own life.

Being a light novel, it's written to be easily consumed, don't expect flowery or poetic prose, don't expect long winded conversations and speeches. All of the writing is purposely kept simple so it can be read quickly, and by anybody, which also makes it an ideal book to read as a palate cleanser between longer books or different genre reads.

I'm giving this a 5 out of 5 stars with zero hesitation, I don't believe any book has ever made me so emotional, and I am now impatiently waiting to get the sequel in the mail. Read this book, no matter what your usual genre may be.

[Tiyanie N]

This author did better pay for my therapy 😭

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Because when you can’t smile, you just can’t

Two strangers. One with a secret. Another with with loneliness. But both with hardships.

This book felt like watching a ghibli movie. A tragic one at that. But I don't regret reading it even though it hurts (a damn lot too lol).
This was so much fast paced and I read this in like 5 hours I think. I was hooked from the first page. It made me giggle and I was so happy and I thought this was such a wholesome book to read during my vacation haha look how that ended.

I wanted to tell her without words that falling in love was making my life better

I'm at a loss to explain how much these characters stuck with me. They were realistically written and had really good character development. I usually tend to read books like mystery or fantasy because I know that most of the time I won't get bored because of all the plot twists. But this book was not boring in the least bit. So as someone who gets bored easily I can garentee you that you won't get bored.

“I didn’t notice it before, but you’re like some kind of downfallen aristocrat. Like, you’re oddly refined

The fact that surprises and saddens me is that how many people haven't read this. This has a gotten a movie and I believe its alot more popular in Japan. But I have never heard of this book in goodreads. Books like this are hidden gems and deserve more recognition.

And if you do want to read this I recommend you to go blindly to this.

The important thing isn’t to have a facade of cleanliness; it’s to makebeing sanitary part of our daily lives

︶ ⏝ ︶ ୨୧ ︶ ⏝ ︶︶ ⏝ ︶ ୨୧ ︶ ⏝ ︶
　　
/ᐠ - ˕ -マ Ⳋ
Rating– 5 stars 🌟
(12-13+)

[panrzeka]

to była piękna i wzruszająca książka (padał mi deszcz z oczu tak 80% in)
-dziękuję za uwagę

“Wounds don't hurt forever […] but as long as my wounds did hurt, I would keep crying. That was fine by me.
Who cared if I was a crybaby?”

“Tooru is here in this world of constant loss. He lives on inside of Maori, and in her memory, that's the expression he's making.
In all her drawings of him, he's smiling.
He's still there, smiling like he did that day, watching over her with those kind eyes of his.”

[Michelle van Wijngaarden]

4.5⭐️

This book was enjoyable to read, kind of like a k-drama, sweet and innocent but the last 50 pages really changed everything and I didn't end the book, it. Ended. Me.


(Thank you Choi San for the recommendation ♡)

[Rosa]

3.5*
Most of the story felt kind of meh to me. I only really got into it at the end and enjoyed that a lot.

[Adwitiya (অদ্বিতীয়া)]

It's a good story. More so because I do know exactly what it's like to be loved so purely at such a young age, and this book captures it well.

~ 10 September 2026

[Annie • willyoubemybookfriend]

why would my mom tell me to read this

[Helen]

Like others, I wonder if the translation made this more stilted and cheesy than it appeared.

Gave me heavy, ‘who do you think gave you the heart’ copypasta vibes.

[Quế Anh]

2.5
old motif, old message, subpar writing (or maybe subpar translation?). it’s the old story about being grateful, not taking life for granted, and appreciating the little things in life because it all may disappear tomorrow. while it could be nice to be reminded of this sometimes, the writing is very on the nose and all the messages are thrusted upon us in a very “lecturing” way, a problem i also found in “before the coffee gets cold”. the novel reads like a book adaptation of a movie and not the other way around, which is never a good sign. i’m still debating whether the death of one of the main characters at the end is added for shock value, given how rushed the ending was. for a short novel with accessible writing, this book took me a painfully long time to get through.

[Mercy]

“Wounds remain, but the pain doesn’t. I suppose that’s the way people survive their sorrow. Do they grow less sad with time? Maybe. You can’t walk forward if you’re forever a prisoner of the past. Yet it made me sad that one day I wouldn’t be anymore.”


Going through grief, this quote hit me too hard.

I thought this would be a love story but it’s so much more than that. It’s about family, friendship, loss, and how memories play a role in our lives.

There are times when the people who I’ve lost are a blur in my mind, but the emotions are still there.

I’ll probably think of this book a lot more on the next couple of days.

[izzy]

i'm crying, this book was so unexpected and sad. but even taking that into account, it was beautiful. each characters were also exceptional and i loved them, especially Tooru.

this is the kind of five stars that you choose w the heart. my feelings in the latest pages were a mess and i even cried a little bit after ending it. this was a sweet and sour way and made me learn about apreciation.

ofc i fell for tooru, he was to sweet, he's the real definition of the word, actually. ♡





so yea, oficially ended on 11/06.

[Paris]

I sobbed my way through two thirds of this book. This was such a beautiful story.

[Kat]

, lahko bi blo edin mau mn depresivno ker me je skor ubil

[leslivresdeemma]

Ça faisait longtemps que j’avais pas chialax pour un roman mais leur histoire m’a eue… sous grosses larmes 😭😭

[guada]

crazy how the last 50 pages are blank and nothing happened !!!!!! crazy so so so crazy right ????