In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
“A quietly overwhelming work that achieves extraordinary emotional clarity.”

David Denby, New York Magazine
“Heartbreaking and unsentimental, it reveals the human cost of war with stark simplicity.”