"You definitely know that human life is priceless and very valuable, it cannot be exchanged for anything in this world. So, now try to imagine, if human life could be calculated in money, what do you think its value would be?"

That is the question from an elementary school teacher to his students which will welcome us at the beginning of the story, as well as being the driving force of this story.

Three Days of Happiness tells the story of someone named Kusunoki, a 20 year old teenager who finds himself short of money and gave up on his life. Even though in the past he considered himself special and different from other children, so he was often ostracized. He believed that in the future, his life would get better. But reality says otherwise, Kusunoki lives an ordinary life. Without motivation and dreams, he lives very deprived. There are no friends he can rely on and nothing special has happened as he promised Himeno, the woman he likes from his childhood ten years ago.

After he was given a day off work due to collapsing after not eating for several days, he decided to sell some of his items for some money. It was at this time that the shop owner told Kusunoki where to sell the remaining years of his life for money. With no motivation or dreams for the future, Kusunoki thought that selling off the remaining years of his life didn't sound so bad. He visited the shop and was told that his remaining 30 years and 3 months of life only amounted to 300,000. The selling price of a year of life is based on how much influence it has, either on the world or on the people around it.

After Kusunoki sold 30 years of his life, he had 3 months left to use the money he had just got. But after he returned to his apartment, he saw a woman at the door. The woman's name is Miyagi, and she will watch over Kusunoki for the remaining 3 months so that he doesn't do anything stupid before his time is up. From morning until night, Kusunoki was not allowed to stay away from Miyagi. At first Kusunoki ignored Miyagi's situation as Miyagi suggested. But as the days passed, they became closer when Kusunoki decided to resolve all the regrets in his life.

The story of Three Days of Happiness is a drama with supernatural things. In this story we can see that Kusunoki really tries to justify his life in the remaining years of his life, starting from his appearance to meeting his old friends. Due to the small number of characters in this story, we can really see how they develop from each other. Kusunoki's limited time also makes us want to continue reading to see if he made the right choice or not.

This novel is one of the most beautifully written novel I have ever read and has become one of my favorite novel of all time. I found Three Days of Happiness is similar to I Had That Same Dream Again where both has the same theme that explore about happiness. What is the factors of happiness, is it something you can achieve easily in your life. When I read the title and the synopsis of this novel i know it's not going to have a happy ending. It's tragic and sometimes painful to read but it made me realized every moment of our lives are precious and we shouldn't waste it on past regrets and hopeless expectations for the future. Everything about this novel was just stunning.

Every time i reach a new chapter, I'm reflecting back at my life. Have I given meaning to my life? Or am I just one of those idiots who says "It turns out I live in a world as beautiful as this, huh. Now I can accept reality with grace," when death approaches?. Every page I read, I understand more and more that even though you only have a little life left, the world will not really change for the better for you if you don't make any changes and living for the sake of other people will not make you truly live in it.

Another thing that i like is Miyagi's character development especially towards Kusunoki since she is always beside Kusunoki all the time monitoring him. She is an outspoken person and pretty vocal about the mistakes Kusunoki made during his life. But the thing that separates Miyagi from a normal person is that she is basically invisible to the world except for the subjects she is supposed to monitor. So we get to see a different side to her personality as well. We get to learn about her reasons for being in this line of work where nobody can see her and the only human contact she could have are with people who don't have much longer to live. So it's pretty obvious that she couldn't get attached to any of her subjects even if they were the only ones who could acknowledge her existence and she also had to toughen herself up to avoid getting hurt by them. So both Kusunoki and Miyagi share the same crushing loneliness and sadness and it was so satisfying to see these two characters who were complete strangers find a common ground and connect with each other in a way they couldn't do with anybody else.

The author doesn't write anything dramatic but tells the story through these sweet little moments sprinkled throughout the book like making thousand origamis or stargazing in the middle of the night. It was such a fantastic way of exploring the whole concept of happiness and what it should mean in our lives instead of the idealistic version we have created in our minds. Happiness isn't something we can get by achieving great things in life. If we can find joy from the little moments at the present then our lives can be just as meaningful no matter how short they are. It also make us think about how precious life is and whether it is worth living if we don't do the things that are good for us. It was a sad story but it still put a big smile on my face by the end of it and I absolutely adore it just for that reason. I highly recommend you to read this novel and hopefully this novel will make you ask, "What would I do if I knew that my life was coming to an end? Would I try to right all past mistakes, or just say nothing?".