The key

'This year I intend to begin writing freely about a topic which, in the past, I have hesitated to mention even here.

I have always avoided commenting on my sexual relations with Ikuko, for fear that she might surreptitiously read my diary and be offended' - So begins "The Key" - a forthright and moving tale of a middle-aged man deeply in love with his younger wife.

In spite of that love, they have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other's thoughts and desires - until the day Ikuko discovers the key to her husband's diary with its desperate hints of jealousy and voyeurism.

The key, she realises, to his very soul.