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Beloved PeopleAuthor: Hayashi Fumiko
| Original Title | 愛する人達 |
|---|---|
| Author | 林 芙美子 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Female Author |
| Summary | In the scorched aftermath of war-torn Tokyo, a young student named Senzō navigates a life frayed by hunger and despair. With his family home destroyed and meager earnings from tutoring evaporating, he clings to survival alongside Gorō, a boy entrusted to his care. Their days blur into a relentless cycle—selling cherished books for coins, bargaining for cigarettes, and rationing flour into tasteless dumplings. Yet flickers of resilience persist: Senzō’s wistful hummed melodies, Gorō’s makeshift inventions, and fleeting visits from Sadako, whose own struggles mirror theirs. Amidst crumbling tenements and black-market whispers, the pair drift like “a tiny boat on open waters,” grasping at fragile hope. Shadows of lost loved ones and Shanghai’s vanished luxuries haunt their conversations, while the city itself—a mosaic of burnt ruins and stubborn vitality—pulses with both menace and possibility. As Senzō wrestles with dignity in a world indifferent to his dreams, the story unfolds as a haunting ode to endurance, where even the faintest glimmer of connection might anchor two souls adrift. |
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