[One Sip of a Book] A Husband Who Lost His Wife Embarks on a Lighthouse Journey

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Since debuting in 1977 with the autobiographical novel Dirty Water River, which won the Dazai Osamu Prize, Teru Miyamoto, a master who has led contemporary Japanese literature with lyrical yet intricate sentences and a warm gaze toward humanity, presents his new novel. The novel Lighthouse tells the story of a protagonist who, suddenly having lost his wife, is engulfed in unbearable grief and embarks on a lighthouse trip by chance, through which he gradually recovers his daily life. It is a record of regeneration, reflecting on the time spent rushing forward relentlessly and regaining the will to live, as well as a warm family drama depicting the reflections and growth of a clumsy husband and an indifferent father.

Such things happen frequently around us. Father, mother, wife, daughter, son, a few close friends. Perhaps I have only seen each of them from afar. Triangles and hexagons all look like circles from a distance. Or rather, sometimes they are too close to see their true form. <206 pages>

Gohe somehow felt reluctant and could not leave easily. He wanted to look a little longer at the Shiriyasaki Lighthouse of White Fang from that place. The somewhat elegant figure standing in the fog seemed to emit stories from a long human past.

Silently staying in one place, the lighthouse that has watched over the lives and deaths of people sailing the sea appeared to Gohe as a person who does not waver in any situation. In the sky blue, sea blue, and fog, the lighthouse seems to erase its own color and hold its breath, but when the sun sets, it unfailingly lights up and illuminates the route. The figure of an unnamed person enduring countless hardships might be like that. That is the grandfather. That is the grandmother. That is the father. That is the mother. That is Ranko. That is me.

That is my children who will live in the future and their children.

Each has various emotions, courage, days of silent endurance, accumulating small happiness, kindness, and fighting spirit. The lighthouse is a symbol of all humans. <301~302 pages>

"Yes. But I think it's better not to talk."

"Why?"

"Because something precious might burst and disappear like a soap bubble."

"What is that precious thing?"

Gohe pondered his answer. Why are there so many things in our lives that cannot be put into words? <336~337 pages>

Lighthouse | Written by Teru Miyamoto | Biche | 391 pages | 18,500 KRW