Abstract

Nominated the 165th Akutagawa Prize

One day, Itsumi noticed that her husband has stopped bathing. He refuses to bathe, saying water smells so bad and if it touches his body it gets itchy. She tells him to rinse his body with water in plastic bottles, but eventually her husband goes outside when its raining and comes back wet. Then her mother in law says that his body odor is talked about the office and blames her for marital problems. Her husband quits his job, which forces them into a decision to move to her home town, where he often visits in search of rivers. Bathing in the river becomes her husband’s daily routine. On a day of heavy rain, Itsumi hears the river flooding alert and looks for her husband....

Author’s Information

Junko Takase was born in 1988 in Ehime Prefecture and now she lives in Tokyo. She graduated from the Faculty of Literature, Ritsumeikan University. Her debut novel "Inu no katachi wo shiteiru mono (THINGS WITH THE SHAPE OF A DOG)" won the 43th Subaru Litterature Prize in 2019. She won the 167the Akutagawa Prize in 2022 for " Oishi gohan ga taberaremasu yo ni (MAY YOU HAVE DELICIOUS MEALS)".