"Kunang-kunang, makhluk kecil yang indah yang masa hidupnya hanya sebentar." Sebuah kekaisaran yang perkasa pun akhirnya runtuh. Jepang dihujani bom oleh pasukan udara Amerika. Pawai kematian terakhir dari suatu bangsa digaungkan oleh jutaan tragedi yang lebih kecil. Ini adalah kisah Seita dan adik perempuannya, Setsuko. Dua anak yang lahir di waktu dan tempat yang salah. Dua orang anak yang terombang-ambing di dunia yang tidak peduli akan nasib mereka. Memaksa mereka berjuang seorang diri di tengah kota yang habis terbakar—tanpa kerabat yang membantu, dan makanan yang begitu langka. “Grave of the Fireflies” adalah kisah mengharukan yang telah diadaptasi ke dalam beberapa media lain, di antaranya yang paling terkenal adalah adapatasi anime oleh Studio Ghibli dengan judul yang sama. Melalui anime inilah kisah Seita dan Setsuko ini menjadi dikenal secara luas di seluruh dunia. Selain “Grave of the Fireflies”, di dalam buku ini juga disertakan cerita-cerita lain yang tak kalah menarik.
Author
Akiyuki Nosaka (野坂 昭如 Nosaka Akiyuki) is a Japanese novelist, singer, lyricist, and former member of the House of Councillors. As a broadcasting writer he uses the name Yukio Aki (阿木 由紀夫 Aki Yukio) and his alias as a chanson singer is Claude Nosaka (クロード 野坂 Kurōdo Nosaka). Nosaka was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Sukeyuki Nosaka, who was a sub-governor of Niigata. Together with his sisters he grew up as an adopted child of Harimaya in Nada, Kobe, Hyōgo. One of his sisters died as the result of sickness, and his adoptive father died during the 1945 bombing of Kobe in World War II. Another sister died of malnutrition in Fukui. Nosaka would later base his short story Grave of the Fireflies on these experiences. He is well known for children's stories about war. His Grave of the Fireflies and American Hijiki won the Naoki Prize in 1967. His novel, The Pornographers, was translated into English by Michael Gallagher and published in 1968. It was also filmed as The Pornographers by Shohei Imamura. In December 1978, he was credited for giving former rugby player-turned pro wrestler Susumu Hara his ring name, Ashura Hara. He was elected to the Japanese Diet in 1983. Nosaka suffered a stroke in 2003 and although still affected by it, he keeps writing a column for the daily Mainichi Shimbun. (from Wikipedia)
