平野啓一郎『ある男』
平野啓一郎の小説は初めて読んだが、引き込まれ一気に読んだ。
宮崎に住む里枝は、次男を脳腫瘍のため2歳で失った。その後夫との関係も悪化、離婚した。宮崎に戻ったあと、実家の文房具屋で働いていたが、その時の客の大祐と再婚した。女児をもうけ幸せな生活を築いていたが、ある日、大祐は働いていた林業の現場で事故死してしまった。葬式が終わったあと、大祐の兄がくる。しかし遺影を見て、大祐ではない、別人だと言われる。
里枝は衝撃を受け、以前離婚の時の弁護士に相談する。調査は難航する。そこには、戸籍を代えた人間たちが浮かび上がる。家族や親族と仲たがいし没交渉になった者。親が重大犯罪で死刑になったため、世間からのけ者にされた者。在日外国人という過去を変えたい者。障がいのためホームレスになり、金で戸籍を売った者。理由は様々あるが、差別によって社会から捨てられた者たちだ。戸籍を替えるとは、その人の人生を譲り受けることだ。戸籍を代えて一生懸命生きていた大祐は、とてもやさしい人だった。そして、大祐の正体がわかる。
男の身元調査を依頼された弁護士が、他人として生きた男の真実を追うこの小説は2022年に映画化された。
Keiichiro Hirano "A Man"
I read Keiichiro Hirano's novel for the first time, but it was interesting and I read it in one go.
Rie, who lives in Miyazaki, lost her second son to a brain tumor at the age of two. After that, her relationship with her husband deteriorated and she divorced. After returning to Miyazaki, she worked at her parents' stationery shop. She remarried Daisuke, a customer of the store. The couple has a baby girl and lived a happy life. One day, Daisuke died in an accident at the forestry site where he worked. After the funeral is over, Daisuke's brother comes. However, when he sees the portrait of the deceased, she is told that he is not Daisuke and that he is a different person.
Rie is shocked and consults with a lawyer she had previously divorced. Investigation is difficult. There, people who changed their family register emerge. Those who have lost contact with their family or relatives. A person who was ostracized from the world because his father was sentenced to death for a serious crime. A foreigner living in Japan who wants to change the past. Those who became homeless due to a disability and sold their family register for money. There are various reasons, but they are people who have been abandoned by society due to discrimination. To change a person's family register means to take over that person's life. Daisuke, who changed his family register and lived hard, was a very kind person. And then, Daisuke's true identity is revealed.
This novel, in which a lawyer who was asked to investigate a man's background, pursues the truth of a man who lived as a stranger, was made into a movie in 2022.