Voices of a Distant Star

Award-winning director and author Makoto Shinkai offers a romantic sci-fi tale about young love and space adventure, based on his animated film. This new novel gives readers more insight into Mikako and Noboru's relationship.
Fans of the original series will again be immersed in the beautiful world of Shinkai.

Sixteen-year-old Mikako Nagamine enlists as a pilot to fight in the interstellar war against a force of alien invaders, leaving behind her one true love. Mikako's only connection to Noboru Terao, who's living the life of an ordinary high school student, is through cell-phone text messages. As Mikoko travels farther away, it starts to take longer and longer for Noboru to receive her messages, until finally one arrives eight years and seven months after she sent it.
The war rages on, and years pass, but out in space, Mikako barely ages. When at last the fighting ends, she is left stranded on the spacecraft carrier. A rescue mission is launched to help - including Noboru, who's now a lot older. When they meet again, they'll discover whether their young love survived.

Makoto Niitsu, better known by his pen name Makoto Shinkai, is a Japanese film director, animator, and voice actor. A native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan, he studied Japanese literature at Chuo University. He traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to while in middle school. Considered one of the best animators in the world today, he is often called the "next Miyazaki." Shinkai developed his abilities as a video game designer for FalCon, where he worked on the cult-classic role-playing game Ys. Shinkai is unique as an animator, having cut his teeth producing almost all elements of many of his works - from animation to music composition to voice acting. He has won numerous awards: 12th DoGA CG Animation Award; 1st New Tokyo International Animation Festival Grand Prize; 7th Kobe Animation Prize; 6th Mainichi Films Animation Prize; 2007 Asia Pacific Film Award; and the Lancia Platinum Grand Prize (Italy).