Heaven

Heaven is a novel by the contemporary Japanese writer Mieko Kawakami. For the 14-year-old protagonist adolescence is a nightmare. He has had amblyopia, or lazy eye, since the age of three. Because of it he is the target of cruel violence at school. He befriends a classmate, Kojima, who is picked on by her classmates for her bad smell and her poverty. Correspondence through post-it notes eventually turns into meetings and the two teenagers trust each other more and more. The novel presents teenage violence in a cruel and merciless way. The novel also deals with the complex issues of individual power(lessness) and the causes of violence between people. (EZ)