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Zusatztext “Yoshida writes with the cool confidence of a seasoned storyteller.” —NPR “A novelist of truly international stature.” — The Times (London) “Japan’s Steig Larsson” — The Wall Street Journal Informationen zum Autor Shuichi Yoshida was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1968. The author of over 25 books, he has won numerous literary awards in Japan and has also had several of his short stories adapted for Japanese television. He lives in Tokyo. Klappentext In a crowded two-bedroom apartment in Tokyo, four Japanese twenty-somethings are waiting for their lives to begin. They have come from all over Japan, bringing with them dreams of success and romance, but life isn't exactly going as planned. Kotomi waits by the phone for a boyfriend who never calls, Ryosuke is sleeping with his best friend's girlfriend, and Mirai's drinking has become a serious problem. Only Naoki, an aspiring filmmaker and the glue that keeps them all together, seems to be on the right track. Meanwhile, their next door neighbors are up to something suspicious, and a mysterious attacker is terrorizing the neighborhood. When a homeless teenager suddenly appears, his arrival sets off a chain of events that will bring to light dark secrets the tenants of Apt. 401 have kept from one another-and from themselves. Parade-from Shuichi Yoshida ("Japan's Stieg Larsson" -The Wall Street Journal), the wildly popular author of Villain-is a shocking story of life in the big city.ryosuke sugimoto (21) 1.1 It was such a weird sight. I was on the fourth-floor balcony looking directly down on Kyukoshu Kaido Boulevard, and though thousands of cars passed by here every day, I’d never seen an accident. There’s an intersection directly below the balcony, and when the traffic light turned red a car stopped right at the line. The car behind it came to a halt, leaving just the right amount of distance so they didn’t collide, and the car behind that one also stopped, leaving the same exact gap. When the light turned green the lead car slowly pulled away, with the second and third cars following at a safe distance, just like they were being pulled along. I mean, I do the same thing when I’m driving. I step on the brake when the car in front comes to a stop, and don’t step on the gas until he starts moving again, no matter how long the light might be green. You can dismiss it as common sense, and accidents don’t occur that easily, but still, looking down on the street from above like that, the ordinary movement of cars looked totally weird. Why, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, was I staring down at traffic? That’s easy. I was bored. When I’m bored like this it feels like time isn’t going in a straight line but is connected at both ends like a circle, and the time I experienced a while back I’m going through all over again. Maybe this is what people mean when they say that something doesn’t have a sense of reality. Like, say I leap from this balcony right now. This is the fourth floor, so if I’m lucky I’d get away with a broken bone. If not, I’d be killed instantly. But if time is circular, then even if I’m killed instantly the first time, there’s always a second time. Having experienced instant death the first time, maybe the second time I can leap down in a way so I wind up with just a minor sprain. By the third time, though, I’d be tired of it all, and wouldn’t even go to the trouble of straddling the railing. But if I don’t leap off the balcony, nothing will change. The same old boring time awaits. It’s isn’t like there’s nothing I want to do on a beautiful Sunday. But if somebody asked what exactly it is I’d like to do, I’d be stuck. Maybe going somewhere I’ve never been, meeting someone I’ve never seen before, and talking with them, being so open and honest it’s almost embarrassing. It doesn’t have to be some cute girl—it could be like Sensei and K in Sos...
