I had never ever read a Japanese author and that is a shame because the Japanese culture has always been fascinating for me. A few travelogues and stories about japan written by Indian authors is all I remember reading here and there. So when this book was up for review on Blogadda, I was curious about it.
Reading the introduction, I knew it was a suspense thriller and must be little to do about Japanese culture. I picked up the book for review because it had been a long time I read some thriller. This is the kind of novel that would revoke your interest back to thrillers if you have lost it.
The story begins rather slow, giving a glimpse of a river side population of homeless and struggling people. A Maths teacher Ishigami is walking to work crossing these areas watching a few characters whom he meets on the way. This part of the story moves slow and you might think you wouldn't be able to get a hang of this book.
Hold on to a few more pages and a mystery would unfold and you would get hooked.
Here is a lady Yasuko, living with her daughter, working in a
Bento shop and living a peaceful life. She has worked in a bar earlier and has been abused in the past as a wife of a drunkard. She has managed to get a divorce and get away from her ex husband so she can live a decent and undisturbed life with her daughter. She joins a couple who have opened this Bento shop to get her daughter a decent upbringing.
It is a story of how a woman whose ex husband appears one fine day and demands money deceptively, to which she has to give in. The ex husband then goes on to pass lewd remarks on the daughter and in a whirlwind of dramatic events the ex husband is killed.
The novel revolves around solving the mystery of this killing. I wouldn't spoil your suspense by further revealing the story. Read the book if you want to see a puzzle being unfold.
The translation of this book is excellent and you don't realise while reading that this novel was written in some other language.
At 350 INR, and a gripping reading ensured, the novel is a good pick. Authored by Keigo Higashino and translated by Alexander O.Smith with Eley J.Alexander.
This book was sent to me by
Blogadda under the book review program. You can also get a book to review by
signing up here.