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A Coming of Age Novel

By: Kazuki Kaneshiro, Takami Nieda - translator

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

Two young lovers…one little secret.

As a Korean student in a Japanese high school, Sugihara has had to defend himself against all kinds of bullies. But nothing could have prepared him for the heartache he feels when he falls hopelessly in love with a Japanese girl named Sakurai. Immersed in their shared love for classical music and foreign movies, the two gradually grow closer and closer.

One night, after being hit by personal tragedy, Sugihara reveals to Sakurai that he is not Japanese - as his name might indicate.

Torn between a chance at self-discovery that he’s ready to seize and the prejudices of others that he can’t control, Sugihara must decide who he wants to be and where he wants to go next. Will Sakurai be able to confront her own bias and accompany him on his journey?

©2000, 2007 Kazuki Kaneshiro; translation © 2018 by Takami Nieda (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

This was sweet

Cultural differences and self-titled "tedious explanations" could not dim the small happy light of this story.

The narrator did a wonderful job with the voices and not letting the heart of the book get lost in translation.

Young love, secrets, & cultural conflict

Sugihara is a student in a Japanese high school, but he's not Japanese. Born, raised, and educated in Japan, he is still Korean, a citizen of South Korea, and legally a resident alien. This places some legal restrictions on him; it also makes him a target of bullying and prejudice.

He has had to become a fighter, while keeping his eyes on the prize of passing the entrance exams for a Japanese university. When he meets and falls in love with a Japanese girl named Sakurai, they bond over classical music and foreign films.

But she doesn't know he's Korean, until, after a personal tragedy in his own life, he finally tells her.

Anti-Korean prejudice runs deep in Japan, and it's not clear that Sakurai will be able to overcome it in herself, or even want to.

This is a short novel, and a novel of first love, but it is so much more than that. It captures, effectively and without a heavy hand, the complexities of being a foreigner in the only country Sugihara knows, the ways it has affected his parents, especially his father, and both the bonds and the conflicts in his relationship with his father.

I found it both enjoyable and enlightening. Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

GO

I enjoyed this story from the Orient, it's sad how this irrational prejudice is all over the world.

I would recommend this book

The narrator was excellent.

Very unique and romantic

I truly believe most of the events during this story were true. This was better than the movie.

A wonderful story

I loved this story, how well it is plotted, characterized, and performed. Despite taking place in Japan, the points on nationalism, the human condition, and the people caught in the middle are ever more relevant.

stellar performance

loved it. as a both Korean and Japanese speaker surprised by the fact that the narrator pronounced these two languages so fluently and correctly.

Meh - Wasn't for Me

This started out okay and had my attention, but it quickly lost steam. I confess, I don't even recall how it ended, and I just finished reading it yesterday. It felt more like a character study, or a window view at a certain kind of character, rather than a truly cohesive story. There were some interesting parts, but I just don't love this.

Great voice actor, didn't enjoy all of the story.

This was one of the free ebooks that I then bought the audible version for. I don't think I would have finished the ebook based on what I listened to. I continued listening because I hoped it would get better.

Koreans in Japan After WW-II

Enjoyed & learned about very interesting story...I must admit that I never thought about life in Japan as 2nd generation of Koreans. Not going into spoilers, I thought it was very interesting story about Korean (South, North, then South again) kid growing up in Japan treated as 2nd citizen, etc. BTW, LOVED ending! ✌

New Culture, New Form of Discrimination

As an American steeped in American culture I generally view discrimination through an American lens. But what about those in other countries? How might discrimination take a different form? A chance to take a peek into a different world is presented in this novel, about an ethnically Korean student living in Japan. As it starts with comparisons to Romeo and Juliet and focuses on a love affair between two high school students, there's something a bit YA fiction about this and I'm not sure how it would be shelved if it was an American novel. But regardless of if its Japanese YA or not, it was an interesting and worthwhile listen.