[Novel] Garden of Words (Koto no Ha no Niwa)

[Machine Translation] Takao Akizuki, a high school student who aspires to become a shoemaker, always skips school on rainy mornings to draw sketches of shoes in a park. One day, Takao meets a mysterious older woman, Yukino, at a pavilion in the park. The two eventually began to meet only on rainy days, without making any promises to each other. Yukino says she has lost her place in the world, and Takao wants to make shoes that will make her want to walk more. The rainy season is about to end, despite their wavering but ever-approaching hearts. Director Makoto Shinkai has adapted the overwhelmingly popular animated film "The Garden of Words" into his own novel. The characters and drama that were not depicted in the animation are woven into the new world of this work.

靴職人を目指す高校生・秋月孝雄は、雨の朝は決まって学校をさぼり、公園で靴のスケッチを描く。ある日、孝雄は、その公園の東屋で謎めいた年上の女性・雪野と出会った。やがてふたりは、約束もないまま雨の日だけの逢瀬を重ねるように。居場所を見失ってしまったという雪野に、彼女がもっと歩きたくなるような靴を作りたいと願う孝雄。揺れ動きながらも近づいてゆく二人の心をよそに、梅雨は明けようとしていた―。圧倒的な支持を受けた劇場アニメーション『言の葉の庭』を新海誠監督が自ら小説化。アニメでは描かれなかった人物やドラマを織り込んだ、新たなる作品世界。