Clarissa Goenawan – författare

Set 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.Ren Ishida has nearly completed his graduate degree at Keio University when he receives news of his sister's violent death. Keiko was stabbed one rainy night on her way home, and there are no leads. 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.But then Ren is offered Keiko's newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local 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.As 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. Haunted in his dreams by a young girl who is desperately trying to tell him something, Ren realizes that Keiko Ishida kept many secrets, even from him.A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of 2018amNY, "Must Read Books in 2018"The Huffington Post, "60 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018"BookBub, "25 Debut Novels We Can't Wait to Read in 2018"iBooks, "10 Debut Novels You Must Read"

A bewitching novel set in contemporary Japan about the mysterious suicide of a young woman.Miwako Sumida is dead.Now those closest to her try to piece together the fragments of her life. Ryusei, who always loved Miwako, follows her trail to a remote Japanese village. Chie, her best friend, was the only person to know her true identity — but is now the time to reveal it? Meanwhile, Fumi, Ryusei’s sister, has her own haunting secret.Together, they realise that the young woman they thought they knew had more going on than they could ever have dreamed.

A mesmerising novel set in Japan, by the author of Rainbirds and The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, about a young man trying to escape his past.When Shoji Arai crosses one of his company’s most powerful clients, he must leave Akakawa immediately or risk his life. But his girlfriend Yoko is nowhere to be found.Haunted by dreams of drowning and the words of a fortune teller who warned him away from three women with water in their names, he travels to Tokyo, where he tries in vain to track Yoko down. But Shoji soon realises that not everything Yoko told him about herself was true. Who is the real woman he once lived with and loved, and where could she be hiding?Watersong is a spellbinding novel of loves lost and recovered, of secrets never spoken, and of how our pasts shape our futures.