When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn-Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher Living with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist (with Makiko Miyano)

Publication:2019
Publisher:Shobunsha, Tokyo

Awards & Film

🏆 Ranked 10th in the 2019 Kinokuniya Humanities Award

The Kinokuniya Humanities Award is a Japanese book prize organized by Kinokuniya, one of Japan’s leading large bookstore chains, highlighting outstanding humanities titles each year.
🎥Adapted into the film All of a Sudden, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and starring Tao Okamoto and Virginie Efira—officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Overview

I first met the philosopher Makiko Miyano in September 2018. At the time, she was an associate professor at Fukuoka University and a scholar of Shuzo Kuki, the Japanese philosopher who famously explored the nature of contingency. By then, Makiko was already living with metastatic breast cancer. Only two months after our first meeting, her doctor delivered a devastating prognosis: there were no more treatment options. She was advised to begin looking for a hospice, as her condition could take a sudden turn for the worse at any moment.

Despite this, our friendship deepened. We continued to host public dialogues and book talks together. In April 2019, six months after we met, Makiko suggested we begin exchanging letters. What started as an academic correspondence between a philosopher and a medical anthropologist soon transformed. As her health rapidly declined, our letters evolved into something entirely different—a raw, profound exploration of life and the “suddenness” of its ending.

This book was published in September 2019, but Makiko had passed away that July. On the very night she finished her final contribution to the manuscript, her condition worsened abruptly, and she was rushed to the hospital. She passed away two months later.

To speak and live without betraying the words we shared—this is my vow, and the way I keep my promise to Makiko.

In an uncanny turn of fate, this story is being adapted into a film by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, acclaimed for works such as *Drive My Car*. The film is scheduled for release in June 2026, premiering in Japan. The book has also been translated into Korean and Traditional Chinese.

Book Review

One could read this book as a life story where Miyano’s existence flows toward death, accompanied by Isono’s exhortations. Yet what truly propelled Miyano’s life was the fundamental, unpossessable depth of the time we encounter each other.

Sakamaki Shitone* / ‘Society and Ethics’
* The person who facilitated Miyano-san and my meeting.

The conclusion Miyano reached—to love a world filled with the beginnings of living with others through chance and destiny—is overflowing with a depth and beauty that resonates with all of us living together in society.

Keisuke Sato/Kyodo News

Their dialogue, woven with sincere feelings toward each other, is powerful, sometimes even intense.

Urata Chihiro, Jinbun Shoin / Kyoto Shimbun

There was a possibility the correspondence would be interrupted if Miyano’s condition worsened. Yusuke Esaka (42), the editor in charge at Shobunsha, says, “In a sense, it was a gamble.” The book was published on the 25th, and its content and production process embodied the “heart of Miyano’s philosophy.”

Reporter Kōshi Machi / Mainichi Shimbun

Featured in Weekly Economist, UOMO, VERY, “NHK Hirumae Hotto,” and the Asahi Shimbun evening edition.

Author Interviews & Dialogues

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