Nobody Knows

From the film by Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Twelve-year-old Akira's childish mom goes away and returns at whim, soon abandoning her children for good, leaving the far more responsible Akira in charge. The tragic ending is devastating but leaves readers free to hope (against hope) for the siblings' survival. Black-and-white photographic stills from the Japanese film on which this is based deepen the novel's breathtaking realism.

This spare, heartbreaking story opens with twelve-year-old Akira and his mother moving into an apartment in Tokyo -- one that doesn’t allow young children. Chatty and laughing as she clumsily bumps a suitcase up the stairs, Akira’s mother is the antithesis of her sober and quiet son, who carefully carries his heavy suitcase, then hastily unzips it. Inside is his four-year-old sister Yuki; his mother’s suitcase holds eight-year-old Shigeru; ten-year-old Kyoko is waiting at the train station. Like the 2004 Japanese film on which the book is based, these first few moments provide an instant, disturbing portrait of Akira’s childish mom, who goes away and returns at whim, soon abandoning her children for good, leaving the far more responsible Akira in charge. Tanaka sticks closely to the movie, conveying the harrowing story as starkly as the film does; unlike the movie, however, she sets the tragedy at the end off-stage, and we experience it as Akira does, arriving only after a terrible accident has occurred. The ending is devastating but leaves readers free to hope (against hope) for the rest of the siblings’ survival. It’s a bleak tale, but, for what it’s worth, the actual events that inspired the movie were far bleaker. Well-chosen black-and-white photographic stills from the film deepen the novel’s breathtaking realism. jennifer m. brabander