The Stationmaster

by Jiro Asada, translated by Terry Gallagher

Japanese original was a bestseller, selling over two million copies. Won Naoki award for popular fiction in 1997, and spawned several films: 1999 film starred yakuza film icon Ken Takakura, who won a best actor award at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival for his performance, title film was Japan's submission to the 72nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Included story "Love Letter" also made into two feature films in 1998 (Love Letter) and 2001 (Failan).