Abstract

Her love derailed my life---

My life has been spent in a continual fear.
I still cannot escape her ghost---

In 1978, Etsuko met Chikayo, a young woman who dreamed of becoming a stage actress, at a bar where she worked part-time.
Chikayo became a special friend to Etsuko, and began to develop a strong emotional attachment to her.
However, soon after Chikayo married her lover, writer Iinuma, she fell ill without warning and passed away.
After Chikayo's death, when Etsuko releases her love for Iinuma
Chikayo's ghost begins to appear…

Author’s Information

Mariko Koike was born in Tokyo in 1952. After graduating from Seikei University with a bachelor's degree in literature, she made her debut in 1978 with a collection of essays entitled "Chiteki Akujo no Susume (The Recommendation of Intellectual Bad Woman),” won the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award (short story category) in 1989 for “Tsuma no Onna Tomodachi (The Wife's Girlfriend ),” the Naoki Award in 1996 for “Koi ( Love ),” the Shimase Love Literature Award in 1998 for “Yokubo (Desire),” the Shibata Renzaburo Award in 2006 for “Niji no Kanata (Beyond the Rainbow),” the Arts and Science Minister Award for “Ichijiku no Mori (The Fig Forest)” in 2012, the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Award in 2001 and the 25th Japan Mystery Literature Award in 2009 for “Chinmoku no Hito (A Man of Silence).” She is also the author of book, “Igyo no Monotachi (Heteromorphic Beings),” “Shi no Shima (Death Island),” “Kami yo Awaremi Tamae (God, have mercy on us),” Tsukiyo no Mori no Fukuro (The Owl in the Moonlight Forest.”