As an unnamed Tokyo taxi driver works a night shift, picking up fares that offer him glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, he can’t escape his own nihilistic thoughts. Almost without meaning to, he puts himself in harm’s way; he can’t stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in obsessive fantasies that soon become terrifying blackout episodes. The truth is, his long-estranged father has tried to reach out to him, triggering a cascade of traumatic memories. As the cab driver wrestles with the grim truth about his past, the history of violence in his childhood among foster families and orphanages, he also confronts his real-world responsibilities—his troubled girlfriend’s blossoming alcoholism and unhappiness over her own sad past.

The Boy in the Earth is a closely told character study that poses a difficult question: Are some lives so damaged they are beyond redemption? Is every child worth trying to save—or are some too ruined by their abusers to ever function in society? A poignant and thought-provoking tour de force.