Penance
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4.5 • 28 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A 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.
When they were girls, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into leaving their friend Emily with a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurred: Emily was found murdered hours later.
The four friends were never able to describe the stranger to the police; the killer's trail went cold. Asako, the bereaved mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will be the ones to pay for her daughter's murder . . .
Like Confessions, Kanae Minato's award-winning, internationally bestselling debut, Penance is a dark tale of revenge and psychological drama that will leave readers breathless.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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. 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. The stranger, claiming he has no ladder, says he needs someone to help him reach a ventilating fan in a pool changing room. Emily goes with him. When she doesn't return, the other girls go looking for her only to discover her dead. 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. Fifteen years later, with the statute of limitations running out, each survivor relates the consequences of that warning for herself. All these fully fleshed-out characters have suffered since Emily's death, each in her own way. Minato (Confessions) has crafted an unnerving tale of tragedy, guilt, and penance.
Customer Reviews
Good read
I love this author. POV but very easy to follow. Kept me wanting to keep reading. Every chapter had a “Wait….WHAT!!!” moment.
iyamisu indeed
so this is why kanae minato is considered a master of iyamisu. parts of this were really hard to read, but i still managed to finish the whole thing in one sitting. i wish more of her books had english translations.
Just started reading
I am so anxious to read it...