7/5/2023 0 Comments Rainbirds by clarissa goenawanSet in an imagined town outside Tokyo, Clarissa Goenawan’s dark, spellbinding literary debut follows a young man’s path to self-discovery in the wake of his sister’s murder. A mesmerizing novel by the author of Rainbirds and The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida about a young man trying to escape his past in Japan. Ren Ishida has nearly completed his graduate degree at Keio University when he receives news of his sister’s violent death. Clarissa Goenawan explores the mysteries of small-town Japan, drawing readers in with understated prose, then ensnaring with a subtle spell, exposing, grain by grain, the secrets behind a young woman’s death. Keiko was stabbed one rainy night on her way home, and there are no leads. Rainbirds is that rarest of debut novelsconfident, transportive, and utterly enthralling. Ren heads to Akakawa to conclude his sister’s affairs, failing to understand why she chose to turn her back on the family and Tokyo for this desolate place years ago.īut then Ren is offered Keiko’s newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local cram school and her bizarre former arrangement of free lodging at a wealthy politician’s mansion in exchange for reading to the man’s ailing wife. He accepts both, abandoning Tokyo and his crumbling relationship there in order to better understand his sister’s life and what took place the night of her death.Īs Ren comes to know the eccentric local figures, from the enigmatic politician who’s boarding him to his fellow teachers and a rebellious, captivating young female student, he delves into his shared childhood with Keiko and what followed.
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