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    The Refugees' Daughter
    The Refugees' Daughter
    The Refugees' Daughter
    Ebook67 pages52 minutes

    The Refugees' Daughter

    By Takuji Ichikawa and Emily Balistrieri

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    About this ebook

    In a society rife with conflict and a world on the edge of extinction, who should we turn to for answers: society's strongest or weakest? This is the question Takuji Ichikawa, one of Japan's most imaginative and unusual authors, poses in The Refugees' Daughter, a magical modern parable for our troubled times. 

    Through this te

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Circle
    Release dateNov 23, 2019
    ISBN9781912864096
    The Refugees' Daughter
    Author

    Takuji Ichikawa

    Takuji Ichikawa is an author who ignores traditional boundaries and is impossible to pigeonhole. One whose positive and fantastical narratives touch the soul through storytelling that not only 'transforms and heals', but also sells in the millions. After initially publishing stories online, his second novel 'Ima Ai ni Yukimasu' (Be With You) became a blockbuster, selling more than a million copies in Japan, putting Ichikawa on the Japanese literary map. The publication of 'Be With You' also sparked the imagination of others, leading to the creation of a Japanese film, several international remakes, a television drama and a manga. Ichikawa's works, which often depict love and loss, continue to resonate and be adapted for film. And Ichikawa, who has been diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome, continues to consistently demonstrate that literature has and should have no borders, and that being different is all about being special - something that should be celebrated.

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      Book preview

      The Refugees' Daughter - Takuji Ichikawa

      ‘Tomorrow, I’m going through the gate.

      Where it leads, no one can say for sure. Of course they can’t. Not a single person who has gone through has ever come back. But some people have heard their broadcasts. Refugees trade rumours in low voices.

      A broadcast is, I guess, similar to some sort of psychic reaction. The voices talk to us as if they’re coming in over a badly-tuned radio. It’s usually sensitive children who can hear the broadcasts, and these types of special powers appear to be some kind of end-of-times development. That repeating pattern – that when a species falls into crisis, another branch of it appears – is apparently true.

      Actually, I have that power a little bit, and I’ve heard Yusuke’s voice a few times. It always sounds so far away and foggy, though – more like an echo of an emotion than a voice.

      But the echo beckons. Maybe I’m crazy, but I can’t help but think he’s calling out to me. So I’ve been wanting to go forever – to escape this world full of hatred and violence and go where he’s waiting for me.

      I feel that betting everything on love when you’re not sure if you’ll even be alive tomorrow is absolutely the right choice for a 16-year-old girl. I’d rather live my life for love, not war.

      According to the broadcasts, where they are is a snow-white world. What is white, I don’t know. The information is like a lingering scent, never stable.

      They say it’s very quiet there. In this world, gun­shots and explosions thunder non-stop, and shouts and screams are the background noise of daily life. If that all disappeared instantly, anybody would go insane. We’re so used to the madness that we’re starting to forget what a calm life is like.

      In any case, the other side of the gate is supposedly much safer than here. The broadcasts guarantee it – ‘It’s peaceful here’.

      But they say things that worry me, too.

      ‘There’s something here…’ The voice had sounded anxious and on guard. ‘I sense some kind of presence…’ We don’t know if it’s friend or foe. It could be The Builders.

      The Builders are the ones who made the gate and the white world on the other side. At least that’s what we started calling them at some point. There are all sorts of competing theories for who The Builders really are: aliens, people from the future, the remnants of an ancient civilisation. Some people even say they’re gods.

      Well, anyhow, no matter who made the gate and the white world, they exist for real, and they’re waiting for us to come. Is this the hand of benevolent salvation or a villainous trap? Even if intentions are good, can we survive there? Food and water are especially important. Even if there’s no war there, without water, we’ll die in a matter of days. (The gate is said to disappear after roughly 48 hours, so if that’s true we won’t be able to come back.) The broadcasts just aren’t clear on that point, so in the end we have to risk our lives on this one-way ticket without knowing. That’s probably why there are so few people who go through.

      Still, we’re going. We’ll pass through the gate. That’s what my family decided. We all agree. This resolve won’t waver.’

      Supposedly, the gate first opened two years ago. Back then, most of the world was in a horrible state, and lots of people believed the end – for this world – was probably nigh.

      ‘How did it all start?’ I always wonder. Up until just a few years ago, all I had to worry about was my marks at school and the spots I was starting to get. Of course, we heard an unbearable amount of bad news: the one-to-a-billion wealth disparity. How global warming had crossed the point of no return. Scenes of forests and farmland turned to deserts and people fighting for food and water in countries suffering drought seemed to be on TV every

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