Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
← Back
SiblingsAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio
| Original Title | 同胞 |
|---|---|
| Author | 豊島 与志雄 |
| Genre | Popular Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a quiet household shadowed by loss, Tsuneo grows up as an only child, his father’s early death leaving him adrift in a world of elderly caregivers and unspoken absences. As adolescence stirs restless daydreams, he yearns for siblings—figments who haunt his solitude as ethereal companions: a protective older brother, a playful younger sister, shadows of kinship just beyond reach. But when a hushed confession from his grandmother reveals a half-brother’s existence, Tsuneo’s longing collides with buried family secrets. Shigeo, the boy born from a forbidden liaison, emerges as both a revelation and a riddle—guarded, melancholic, and bound by layers of shame. Their clandestine meetings ignite a fragile bond, blending youthful curiosity with the weight of inherited guilt. Yet as Tsuneo navigates this fractured mirror of himself—a brother raised in another life—he grapples with questions of identity, loyalty, and the ghosts of a father neither truly knew. Amid cherry blossoms and stifled truths, their connection becomes a quiet rebellion against silence, even as the past threatens to unravel their fragile world. |
← Return to List← Return to TOP