Penance

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. (Apr.)