Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight
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3.8 • 9 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the author of The Aosawa Murders, one of the NYT Notable Books of 2020. The WSJ commented: “Part psychological thriller, part murder mystery—it is audacious in conception and brilliant in execution.” The Globe and Mail said the book was “emerging as one of the most praised novels of the year.”
This gripping psychological thriller takes place in a desolate apartment in a Japanese city. The protagonists, Aki and Hiro, fell in love at university before becoming convinced that they were brother and sister, separated when young after Aki was adopted. After living together platonically for some years they went on a trek in the mountains, where their guide—their estranged natural father—died inexplicably. Each believes the other to be the murderer and are determined to extract a confession.
The suspicion has destroyed their relationship and so they have decided to go their separate ways. But first, they feel compelled to discuss what happened that day. In the ensuing psychological battle of wills during their last night together, they retrace events and come to a stunning conclusion.
The thriller--buried in a literary whodunit--explores the mysteries of romantic love, memory and attaining self-knowledge. Like the best Japanese crime writing it is an unflinching foray into the darker recesses of the soul, quietly suspenseful and elegantly constructed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this artful and enigmatic suspense novel, Onda (The Aosawa Murders) pulls the ground out from under the reader by undermining beliefs and expectations concerning her two alternating and potentially unreliable narrators. A young couple about to break up, Hiro and Aki, are preparing to spend their last night together in their small apartment in an unnamed Japanese city. In the first chapter, Hiro concludes his dispassionate account of a mundane conversation between them by wondering whether at some point that night he'll have to force Aki "to say with her own lips that she killed that man?" In the next chapter, Aki reveals that she lied when she told Hiro she would be traveling to Vietnam with friends as a way to ensure that Hiro, whom she suspects of murdering the unidentified man, doesn't harm her. Onda judiciously and incrementally fills in the backstory about the man, who officially died as the result of an accidental fall. This tour de force demonstrates how suggesting events can be so much more powerful than explicitly depicting them. Fans of subtle psychological thrillers will be enthralled.
