Le Sablier #9

Two young women — one with long blonde hair, one with dark hair pinned up — sit together in a quiet, intimate moment amid soft blue-grey bedding, their backs partly turned as if lost in private thoughts. Hinako Ashihara's Le Sablier has long drawn readers in with its delicate emotional honesty, and this ninth volume, published by Kana in 2009, carries that same tender, introspective atmosphere right through to its cover. If you've been following these characters' intertwined lives, tome 9 looks like exactly the kind of chapter that lingers with you.