Grass Eyelashes

In gripping, quickly interchanging scenes, Ruth Johanna Benrath tells the story of a wish for intimacy and love, and the fatal effect of dependence and submissiveness: the story of a young woman who becomes more and more alien to the very person she feels closest to.

Anna is dead. And Rena wants to know why. Since Anna left all of a sudden for America at the age of 19 to marry Reiko, Rena hasn’t seen her school friend; letters and postcards arrive less frequently and Rena never gets to know Anna’s husband Reiko. When one day a packet is delivered to her with Anna’s diary and obituary, and Reiko becomes more and more persistent in his attempts to contact her, Rena’s memories of her friend start to haunt her. Soon there is no escaping the questions that Rena has long been avoiding: Why did they become alienated after such a long, untroubled friendship? And what was Anna’s last mysterious and almost hostile letter about?