A Brief Message from the Heart
Nihon ichi mijikai 'Haha' e no tegami
'Mother, are you happy with him? Father said nothing and died quietly.' Hiroshi borrows his sister Maki's laptop computer and finds a short message written to the mother who had abandoned them. Without telling Maki, Hiroshi submits her message to a Fukui prefecture collection, and it wins a prize. The episodic narrative gradually fills in the background to this message. She goes from being a design company employee to a restorer of medieval art works. He is a university student in Tokyo. Their father died of a heart attack and never spoke about the divorce from their mother. Hiroshi meets the mother and tries to bring her back to the family, despite Maki's violent objection.
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