First Love
Tags
Summary
Fourteen-year-old Yuko falls in love for the first time in her life—with a painting teacher in his mid-twenties. The age gap does not stand in the way of their relationship. A small miracle occurs: the two draw closer step by step without realizing it, find more and more to talk about, and independently see the same wondrous visions.
The story is plain yet deeply moving, with exquisitely detailed psychological portraiture, so warm it melts the heart.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers with a delicate sensitivity to family relationships and emotional bonds
- Literary lovers who enjoy profound philosophy within plain narratives
- Young people in a life transition seeking inner calm
- Readers interested in contemporary Japanese literature and "healing" works
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking strong plots, fast pacing, and intense conflict
- Pragmatists hoping for concrete methods or life guidance
Reading tips
- Read on a quiet afternoon or before bed, following the rhythm of the prose and sinking in slowly.
- While reading, notice the unspoken dialogues and subtle gestures between characters.
- After finishing, reflect on your own definitions of "family" and "belonging."
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 正文一
- 正文二
- 正文三
- 正文四
- 正文五
- 微妙的时期——文库版后记
FAQ
Is this an early work by Banana Yoshimoto?
Is the tone of the story sad?
Is it suitable as a gift for a friend?
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About the author
Banana Yoshimoto, whose real name is Mahoko Yoshimoto, was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964. She is a contemporary Japanese novelist and a graduate of the College of Art at Nihon University. In 1987, her debut work Kitchen won the Kaien Newcomer Literature Prize, and the following year she received the Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize; she has since also won the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. Her writing, light and pure in tone, explores loneliness, death, and healing. Her representative works include Kitchen, Shirakawa Yofune, Honeymoon, Daisy Life, Rainbow, and Memories at the End, among others. The library holds 28 of her works, commonly classified as foreign literature. Her writing has been translated into many languages and has reached readers abroad.
Peng Shaojun, born in July 1988 in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, is a Japanese-language translator and a researcher of Haruki Murakami's literature. According to publicly available information, she studied at Sichuan University, Shanghai University and Waseda University in Japan, and has taught Japanese at the School of Japanese Language and Culture, Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College. Her major translations include Banana Yoshimoto's Hatsukoi and Karada Zenbu Shitteiru, Ito Ogawa's Eien no Niwa, and Machida Sonoko's The 52-Hertz Whale; three of her works are included in this catalog. Her choice of translations shows a sustained effort to introduce contemporary Japanese writing that explores emotion, the body and everyday healing, with a style that seeks to stay close to the original tone and to serve as a bridge for Chinese readers of Japanese women writers.
