Takiko, a young unwed mother, has these dreams.  She is running “faster, faster.. . . When she has run until her body is empty, she stops abruptly and lets her gaze return again to the distant, delicately sparkling world below.  Rivers trace silver lines.  The sea is in sight.  . . . drifting ice appears and expands into a world of white.” But that is very far from her actual life.  She has a father who is physically abusive when drunk (most of the time) […]