Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: サイレント・ウィッチ

すずめの戸締まり

Author: 新海 誠
Page count: 340 (physical edition) / 380 (kindle)
Natively: Level 31

Summary

Japanese

九州の静かな港町で叔母と暮らす17歳の少女、岩戸鈴芽。
ある日の登校中、美しい青年とすれ違った鈴芽は、「扉を探してるんだ」という彼を追って、山中の廃墟へと辿りつく。
しかしそこにあったのは、崩壊から取り残されたように、ぽつんとたたずむ古ぼけた白い扉だけ。
何かに引き寄せられるように、鈴芽はその扉に手を伸ばすが……。

やがて、日本各地で次々に開き始める扉。
その向こう側からは災いが訪れてしまうため、開いた扉は閉めなければいけないのだという。
―――星と、夕陽と、朝の空と。
迷い込んだその場所には、すべての時間が溶けあったような、空があった―――

不思議な扉に導かれ、すずめの“戸締まりの旅”がはじまる。
新海誠監督が自ら執筆した、原作小説!

English

Suzume Iwato is a 17-year-old girl who lives with her aunt in a quiet port town in Kyushu.
One day, on her way to school, Suzume passes a beautiful young man, and she follows him to a ruin in the mountains, saying he’s looking for a door.
However, all that was there was an old white door that stood alone, as if it had been left behind after the collapse.
Suzume reaches for the door, as if something is drawing her towards it, but…

Before long, doors begin to open one after another across Japan.
It is said that the open door must be closed because disaster will come from the other side.
――The stars, the sunset, and the morning sky.
In the place I wandered into, there was a sky where all time seemed to melt into one…

Guided by a mysterious door, Suzume’s ``door-locked journey’’ begins.
The original novel written by director Makoto Shinkai himself!

Availability

Amazon
BookWalker
+several other sources (check the Natively page for a few links)

Personal Opinion

I was surprised I didn’t see it nominated yet. The movie came out last year, and both the movie and book are mostly well rated and seem to be quite popular. Personally, it has been on my radar for a while - I wanted to watch the movie, but ended up coming across the physical edition and bought it, and since I’m planning to read it next year anyway, thought I might as well nominate it.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Popular, well-rated series, which also helps for book acquisition
  • There’s a movie and also a manga adaptation
  • The book is divided in “days” with sub-chapters, which should make it easier to organize a schedule

Cons

  • Sci-fi/fantasy themes may be a turn-off to some people
  • Relatively longer book (~350+ pages)
  • The movie is the original (the book is a novelization)

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One



Additional Pages





Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Moderate effort
  • Significant effort
  • So much effort my head might explode
  • I don’t know
0 voters
12 Likes