She didn’t realize that she had just taken her last breath.
As she slowly begins to understand that she has died, Yukiko travels east and west to see those who are dear to her for the final time while her daughter, haunted by guilt for failing to save her mother's life, struggles in coming to terms with her unexpected loss. Yukiko reflects on what she had seen and experienced over the course of her life: growing up in wartime Japan, immigrating to Canada, returning to Japan after her husband’s death, and getting older and weaker as she tries to tell her daughter to forgive herself—You did not fail me—and to go on with her own life.
A blend of facts and what-ifs that was written at record speed, Forty-Nine Days explores the traditional Japanese belief that the souls of the deceased remain in their homes for a period of forty-nine days before moving on to a place of eternal bliss.
Pages
149
Format
Kindle Edition
Forty-Nine Days: So this is what it's like to die...
She didn’t realize that she had just taken her last breath.
As she slowly begins to understand that she has died, Yukiko travels east and west to see those who are dear to her for the final time while her daughter, haunted by guilt for failing to save her mother's life, struggles in coming to terms with her unexpected loss. Yukiko reflects on what she had seen and experienced over the course of her life: growing up in wartime Japan, immigrating to Canada, returning to Japan after her husband’s death, and getting older and weaker as she tries to tell her daughter to forgive herself—You did not fail me—and to go on with her own life.
A blend of facts and what-ifs that was written at record speed, Forty-Nine Days explores the traditional Japanese belief that the souls of the deceased remain in their homes for a period of forty-nine days before moving on to a place of eternal bliss.