[Machine Translation] (Nominated for the 2025 Bookstore Award!) For someone like me, who remains trapped in the world of youth and the classroom, this book really hits home. It s a masterpiece. Mizuki Tsujimura To everyone caught in the throes of hesitation, wondering why they re alive and why they won t die. This is a delightful work packed with humor, youthful naivety, cruelty, and tenderness by a newcomer whose debut I ve been eagerly awaiting. Hitomi Kanahara (65th Mephisto Prize) (No. 1 on Book Magazine s" Top 10 for the First Half of 2024) (Winner of the 11th Yamanaka Prize) (2nd Place, Miraiya Novel Grand Prize) (Winner of the King s Brunch" BOOK Grand Prize 2024) A youth that will never return. The voices echoing through the classroom are proof of life. Just before summer vacation ended, Yamada died. Apparently, he was hit by a drunk driver. Yamada was smart, funny, kind to everyone, and the most popular student in Class 2-E. On the first day of the second semester, just as their homeroom teacher, Hanaura, suggested rearranging the seats to cheer up the grief-stricken class, Yamada s voice came over the classroom speakers The classroom erupted into chaos. It seemed Yamada s spirit had somehow possessed the speaker. ( I really love Class 2-E.") And so began the strange days of Yamada now reduced to just a voice and his friends in Class 2-E . Recommendations from Past Mephisto Award Winners: We laugh, are surprised, and cry at Yamada s youth a story that doesn t end even in death. (21st Award Winner) Tomoya Sato: It s silly yet fun. But it s also bittersweet and poignant. Youth is Yamada!! (49th Award Winner) Shouha Kazamori: Yamada, who can confidently declare the strongest is the strongest," is truly the strongest and the best. (53rd Award Winner) Masamune Masaki: I was surprised to discover such a unique angle, and I was shaken to find that the story could end this way! (59th Award Winner) Yutaka Togi: My days at an all-boys school which I ve never actually experienced came flooding back with a strange, raw realism. (61st Award Winner) Mikoto Mashimo: It s corny, dazzling, and heartbreaking. A thoroughly satisfying work that captures the essence of youth and features a moving finale. (56th Award Winner) Ritsu Igarashi It was a story that seemed to pick up the delicate emotions I d left behind in the school building. (57th Award Winner) Ken Shiotani