by Masako Togawa
translated by Simon Grove
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BookExcerpt
Published: 2018
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Japan
Paperback: 192
Rating: 5
First sentence(s):
PROLOGUE
1 April 1951: At the Otsuka Nakacho crossroads
On that day, the snow (unusual for April) which had fallen on the night before was still half an inch deep in the morning.
In postwar Tokyo, the K Apartment House for ladies is about to be moved intact in a highly publicized engineering feat. Then, flashback seven years to one of its occupants and her confederate--a man dressed in woman's clothes--as they bury a child's body in an unused communal bath beneath the building. A second flashback tells of the kidnapping of four-year-old George Kraft, son of an American army officer and his Japanese wife. The stage is set. The actors are a few of the present-day occupants of the K apartments--single, lovely, obsessed, neurotic--each life a novel in itself, told in a spare, unembellished style that never lapses into the sentimental. Manipulated by hidden strings, their actions and reactions lead to suicide, murder, and some final surprising revelations. This is a fresh, original novel, superbly crafted and riveting from start to finish.
My two-bits:
Whoa, didn't see that coming. Loved the initial convoluted feeling I got after reading the second to the last chapter.
Different and dark aspects of single women in Japan are portrayed.
* part of Books, Inc. Foreign Intrigue Book Club (here)
