Shadows in the distant mountains: Parents think that the best decision is not necessarily the best decision for their children.

1

The novel takes place in Nagasaki, Japan after the war. Survivors try to shake off the painful and sad memories of their loved ones' death and try to move on.

However, war is like an unavoidable ghost, and the suffering it brings still pervades people's lives. Adults' smiles are always mixed with sadness, and the mental damage caused to children may never be calmed down.

After the war, the old and the new alternated. People's ideas and beliefs have changed dramatically.

Confucius is a Japanese woman. When she was young, she immigrated to England with her daughter Jingzi and her second foreign husband.

Jingzi, who couldn't adapt to life in England, had to shut himself off and finally chose to hang himself in his bedroom.

Confucius was heartbroken. In her memory, she split herself into a woman named Sasuke and imagined Jingzi as Sasuke's daughter Wan Li. And she herself is the neighbor of the mother and daughter.

Confucius recalled his daughter's days before emigration from the perspective of a bystander, which contained heavy sadness and reflection.

Why do you want to write like this? The author kazuo ishiguro's explanation is: "Some people think that their experiences are too painful or unbearable, so they borrow other people's stories to tell their own stories."

2

The air-dropped bombs left the country devastated, and everything was in ruins, whether it was national construction or people's frightened and painful hearts.

In the memory constructed by Zi Yue, after the gunfire of the war finally stopped, she and her husband settled in the eastern suburb of Nagasaki, Japan.

One day, in a wooden house by the river, a woman named Sasuke and her daughter Wan Li moved in.

Wan Li is eccentric and withdrawn. She keeps several kittens, and she gives each kitten a name. Sasuke is often not at home, and only kittens play with her.

Wan Li has no friends. When other children speak ill of Sasuke, she fights with them and throws stones at them. Then the children stole a kitten, and Wan Li said they killed it.

She often said that a woman came across the river to see her, and she wanted Wan Li to go with her. But there are only small Woods on the other side of the river, and no one lives at all.

Sasuke told Confucius that Wan Li was not like this before and is not like this now. She used to be an excellent child, and her words and manners can reflect her intelligence.

But one day something happened and Wan Li saw something bad.

That was before the end of the war. Wan Li saw a skinny woman kneeling by the river with her arms in the water, as if she were holding something.

After a while, she smiled sadly at Wan and fished out a drowned baby from the water.

This scene has a great influence on Wan Li. She can't forget this woman, and she always thinks she can see her. In the absence of Sasuke, she has to pack herself up and leave.

This woman, shortly after the incident, committed suicide.

three

During the chat, Sasuke and Zi Yue said that she was born in a prestigious family and her father has been working overseas.

Sasuke has studied English since childhood. She likes English. Her father encouraged her, bought her an English book and told her that if you learn English well, you can go to America to be a businesswoman in the future. This is a country full of possibilities.

But Sasuke got married, not because of love, but because of the right family. The husband is a traditional Japanese man. He doesn't want Sasuke to learn English, and even wants her to throw away those English books.

Sadako obeyed, thinking that her dream of going to America would never come true again.

Later, when the war came, Sasuke didn't say anything about her husband's family. She just took her daughter Wanli to live with her uncle. The old man has an unmarried daughter in her seventies. Sasuke calls her cousin An Zi.

My uncle's house is very big. There are many vacant rooms, but only two people live there. It's as quiet as a grave. Sasuke didn't want to stay there, and he died alone.

But Wan Li loved it. Her uncle's house is quiet and stable. She can go to school and raise many kittens.

Finally Sasuke took his daughter away. She knew an American who promised to take them to America.

This American is not old and a little bald. In Sasuke's narrative, he promised to take them to the United States many times, but failed to do so.

He drank, drank in a bar for three days, and then drank all the money Sasuke had saved for going to America. In order to save money, Sasuke had to kneel on the floor to clean the hotel floor. She thinks she can handle all this.

But Wan Li hates this American man very much. She says he is a pig and doesn't want to go to America with him at all.

When the man promised to take them to America again, Wan Li tried to hang himself in the Woods, but failed. When Sasuke found her, he saw her lying on the ground with scars on her legs. Sasuke lied to himself that Wan Li just climbed a tree, slipped and fell.

When they finally left Japan, Sasuke told Wan Li the night before that they couldn't take the kitten. She took the kittens out of her daughter's arms, put them in barbed wire boxes one by one, took them to the river and pressed them into the water.

Wan Li stood on the shore and looked at her with a straight face. Until Sasuke let go of her hand, the box calmed down and floated away with the running water.

Wan Li was on the shore, running with a box, with aquatic plants hanging on it, and all of them sank.

Facing the daughter squatting by the bridge, at this time, Zi Yue, who has been watching these things with onlookers, finally joined in the fun with Sasuke. She found Wan Li's son and daughter Jingzi and said to her, "If you don't like it there, we can always come back, I promise."

Confucius jumped out of his memory of Sasuke and Wan Li and returned to the memory of his daughter Jingzi in reality.

When Jingzi came to England, he refused to leave his room and didn't allow anyone to enter. Her clothes are dirty and piled up at the door. Confucius said take them away, wash them and send them back. Every time she goes to the living room, everyone is nervous. Without exception, she ended up quarreling. Finally, she went back to her room.

Later, regardless of Zi Yue's objection, she insisted on leaving the house and renting a house in Manchester to live alone.

A few years later, Jingzi hanged himself at home. She hung in the room for several days before being found by the landlord.

Confucius' promise to his daughter was finally unfulfilled. Jingzi didn't like England, but in the end, they didn't go back to their hometown.

four

Facing the decision to go to the United States, in the conversation between Zi Yue and Sasuke, Zi Yue repeatedly questioned that she was worried about Wan Li, didn't like the new environment and couldn't adapt.

Sadako always said that going to America was well thought out. For her, the interests of her daughter are the most important, and she will never make a decision that will harm her future. America is better for girls to grow up. She can be a businesswoman and an artist, but what can she expect in Japan?

This is a collision of two concepts. Confucius spent his whole life exploring whether his decision to leave Japan was correct.

She knew that her motivation to leave Japan was justified and that she would not be happy without Japanese Wanli, but she decided to take her away.

Until Jingzi ended his unfortunate life by committing suicide, Confucius' heart could only be filled with remorse and self-blame. In the memory of Confucius, Sasuke finally admitted that he was not a good mother.