Stand-In Companion, by the award-winning Japanese author Kazufumi Shiraishi, explores the struggle to find love, companionship and meaning in life. In any society, relationship dynamics are complex. And as Hayato, a Japanese industrial designer will discover in this clever and absorbing tale, this is even the case in a future world enriched by technology, AI and androids. A love story with a twist, Stand-In Companion is a touching and powerful exploration of infertility and relationships. Hayato and his wife, Yutori, face deeply human challenges in a world where science has solved almost every problem. A clever, absorbing and profoundly modern tale from one of Japan's best and most insightful storytellers. Red Circle Minis: Original, Short and Compelling Reads Stand-In Companion is part of Red Circle Minis, a series of short captivating books by Japan's finest contemporary writers that brings the narratives and voices of Japan together as never before. Each book is a first edition written specifically for the series and is being published in English first.

Stand-In Companion (Red Circle Minis)

Literature & Fiction

Shiraishi, Kazufumi

Literary

Red Circle

A jaded journalist inherits an abandoned manuscript penned by an old acquaintance who has recently passed away. The writing―a collection of ruminations on the nature of existence by a fifty-three-year old businessman who, as far as the journalist remembers, was a kind and gentle soul―is nothing short of shocking. In it, this apparent everyman―whom we know only as Mr. K―writes that he has a son, daughter, and wife, but has no love for them. He claims that humans are like cancer cells, destroying Mother Earth with their unrestrained propagation. He looks at our mortal destiny with an unflinching honesty and turns to psychic mediums for clues to the afterlife, wondering what immortality―if it were possible―would mean for our spiritual well-being. Me Against the World takes the reader down the rabbit hole of the raging mind of this man, who only rejects the world in order to save it from itself.

Me Against the World (Japanese Literature)

Dalkey Archive Press

Naoto Matsubara works in a Tokyo publishing house, though the work doesn’t particularly interest him. What does interest him, we soon discover, is the purpose of life. Naoto ponders the powers of love, attachment, and mutual care by examining closely his own friends and lovers, searching out how exactly his connection to them confers meaning on his life. Along the way, Naoto also draws on the thought of many writers and philosophers, including Tolstoy, Fromm, and Mishima.

The Part of Me That Isn't Broken Inside (Japanese Literature)

Hoka Naranu Hito E in Japanese

Shodensha

Hoka Naranu Hito E (Korean Edition)

Red Box

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Books by Shiraishi, Kazufumi