少年H (上)
Author: 妹尾 河童 (Kappa Senoo)
Summary
Japanese
第1巻の内容紹介: 胸に妹尾肇のイニシャル「H」の文字を編み込んだセーター。外国人の多い神戸の街でも、昭和12年頃にそんなセーターを着ている人はいなかった……。洋服屋の父親とクリスチャンの母親に育てられた、好奇心と正義感が人一倍旺盛な「少年H」こと妹尾肇が巻き起こす、愛と笑いと勇気の物語。毎日出版文化賞特別賞受賞作。2013年夏・映画公開決定。
English
Volume 1 Introduction: A sweater with the initials “H” of Hajime Seo knitted into the chest. Even in Kobe, a city with many foreigners, there was no one wearing such a sweater around 1937. … This is a story of love, laughter, and courage involving “Boy H,” or Hajime Seo, who was raised by a dressmaker father and a Christian mother, and whose curiosity and sense of justice are more vigorous than others. Winner of the Mainichi Publication Culture Award Special Prize, the film will be released in summer 2013.
(Translator: DeepL)
Length: 355p.
Category: Fast (but not too fast)
Natively link: 少年H 上巻 | L38??
Availability
see Natively page.
Personal Opinion
Some years ago I was somewhat active on a language partner chat site, and whenever I met a new (Japanese) person, I asked them to tell me their favourite book. One person mentioned this book 
so here we are!
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Winner of the Mainichi Publication Culture Award Special Prize
- There seems to be a movie as well as an English translation for those who like these things
Pros or Cons depending on your POV
- (Fictional but apparently realistically described) Life of a Japanese boy before/around WWII, so probably heavier topics are included
- Episodic in nature
- There’s a lot of vocabulary (according to a review on Natively)
- Almost everybody speaks Kansai-ben
- It’s split into 上 and 下 - the club will only read the first one
Preview
Please refer to the Bookwalker preview (available from the Natively page).