勇気凛凛ルリの色 満天の星

by Jirō Asada

小説家としての人生を私はついに手に入れた！　取材で海外に行った。映画の原作になった。高額納税者にもなった。パリに行った。自分の作品の映画も出来た。そして、ガッポリ税金も納めた……。このエッセイは、無名の物書きが小説家になるまでのサクセス・レポートとして読んでほしい。さあ、泣いて笑って、みんなでサクセスしよう！　不滅の痛快エッセイ、とりあえずの最終巻！（講談社文庫）

284 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2001

About the author

Jirō Asada (浅田 次郎, born December 13, 1951 in Tokyo) is the pen name of Kōjirō Iwato (岩戸 康次郎), a Japanese writer.

Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'état among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the SDF after finishing his studies. He changed jobs many times while endeavoring to find writing opportunities, submitting his works to literary competitions.

In 1991, his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!) started his literary career. After writing several picaresque novels, his novel Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) was awarded the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for New Writers and made into a 2006 film; a short story collection The Stationmaster and other stories (Poppoya (鉄道員)) was also awarded the Naoki Prize.

He writes not only standard fiction and picaresque novels, but also writes historical and Chinese historical novels such as The Firmament of the Pleiades (Sōkyū no subaru, 蒼穹の昴).