The Letters
by: Kazumi Yumoto/Cathy Hirano (transl)

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. When Chiaki learns of the death of her and her mother's former landlady, Mrs. Yanagi, she feels compelled to go to the funeral, although she hasn't seen Mrs. Yanagi in years. As she prepares for the trip, she also begins a journey through memory, beginning right after her father's death, when her mother took an apartment at Poplar House. Chiaki, six at the time, is overwhelmed by the recent changes, falls ill, and cannot attend school. Mrs. Yanagi ends up looking after her during the daytime. The landlady initially frightens her new charge, but as Chiaki spends more time with her, the two begin to form an odd alliance. One day Mrs. Yanagi tells Chiaki that she has been charged with a divine mission to carry letters to the dead when she goes to the grave herself. Inspired, Chiaki then begins a tentative one-way correspondence with her father, diligently entrusting her letters to the landlady. And it's through remembering this time of her life that the grown Chiaki is able to confront her confusion about who she is now