That story grabbed me with its second person storytelling approach and its complex exploration of a horrible crime. When I read Confessions a little over four months ago I didn’t expect it to stay with me the way it has. Asako, the bereaved mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will be the ones to pay for her daughter’s murder… The four friends were never able to describe the stranger to the police the killer’s trail went cold.
Then the unthinkable occurred: Emily was found murdered hours later. When they were girls, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into leaving their friend Emily with a mysterious stranger.
Minato (Confessions) has crafted an unnerving tale of tragedy, guilt, and penance.Originally published in 2009 as 贖罪 ( Shokuzai).Įnglish translation first published in 2017.Ī chilling Japanese psychological thriller and Edgar Award finalist about four women, forever connected by one horrible day in their childhood - fifteen years later, someone wants to make sure they never forget. All these fully fleshed-out characters have suffered since Emily's death, each in her own way. Fifteen years later, with the statute of limitations running out, each survivor relates the consequences of that warning for herself. Emily's mother blames the girls and warns them to "atone for what you've done, in a way I'll accept," if they can't find the murderer. When she doesn't return, the other girls go looking for her only to discover her dead. The stranger, claiming he has no ladder, says he needs someone to help him reach a ventilating fan in a pool changing room.
One summer day, when they're all 10, a strange man approaches the girls while they're playing ball by the swimming pool of their small, rural Japanese town's elementary school. Minato's moving, tension-filled second novel charts the impact of a traumatic murder on four young women, Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuka, who were childhood friends of the victim, Emily.
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