(In some accounts, this short story is given as the book’s entire contents-such descriptions are misleading as there is actually an entire novel that follows!) This story, however, is probably the lightest part of the book. Unable to withstand her horror, the girl dies, and, broken hearted, so too does the raven perish, lying beside her so that her parents come in upon the corpses of the two strange friends intertwined.
When the young girl puts the eye in her socket, however, she begins screaming as she reliving the torture which led to the first owner’s demise. When the girl places the eyes in her empty sockets, she is able to vividly dream the memories of those to whom they originally belonged, allowing her to temporarily see all that they have seen.Īs the villagers become increasingly wary of birds, the raven becomes desperate for new eyes, and thus visions, with which to please his friend, eventually coming to steal the eye of a corpse. Feeling sorry for her condition, the raven begins collecting eyes for the girl, pecking them from various people in the unfortunate village. Because she is unable to see him, the girl assumes that the raven is human, a misunderstanding that the bird relies upon. In this short story/prologue, a talking raven befriends a young, blind girl. Otsuichi’s first published novel begins with a fairy tale of the classic variety, a horrifying fable consistent with the Brothers Grimms’ grimmest tales, resplendent with gore, good intentions gone awry, and a cautionary dénouement.
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