Swallowing The Earth by Osamu Tezuka
I just got this book a week ago for about 20 bucks. Man, it is a great read. I won't spoil anything but it was definitely worth the 20 bucks that I pay for it. The male character is awesome especially when he is drunk. If you are not reading this then, what are you doing? Granted, I was kind of surprise to see how hard to find is now. According to the Introduction, which was done by the author of "The Astro Boy Essays", it was Tezuka's transition from writing kids stories to writing adult stories. This book was Tezuka's first gekiga story , and it was a damn good one at it. I was a little put off at the beginning since his normal troupe of characters were not present, but alas it was interesting to see how many other character's he had in mind.
If you can find this book I would recommend it to get it.