We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

Rainbirds

ebook / ISBN-13: 9781472154743

Price: £8.99

Select a format:

Paperback

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

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 2018
amNY, “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”

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

[A] well-paced mystery . . . Goenawan's debut balances a finely wrought plot with patient, measured portraits of fragile relationships, making for a spare yet inviting novel that grabs hold and doesn't let go
Publishers Weekly
Mysterious and dark
Daily Beast
Throughout this novel, numerous moments pleasantly evoke the surrealism of Murakami, the nightmarish descriptions of Abe, the alienated youth of Yoshimoto, and the ill-fated lovers of Kawabata. But Rainbirds, suffice it to say, is a different beast, a contemporary work of noir that draws readers into an eerie landscape that is hard to forget
Los Angeles Review of Books
Goenawan's debut proves to be a soulful whodunit full of deadpan humor and whimsical narrative unpredictability. A witty, well-constructed debut.
Kirkus Reviews
A transnational literary tour-de-force. Readers will be carried along by its creepy charm
The Japan Times
A murder mystery and a family drama in one, this book is as beautiful as it is understated. The author presents us with a fascinatingly structured look into Japanese society and a depiction of mourning and grief that is universally recognizable.
San Francisco Chronicle
Elegantly [combines] a suspenseful mystery with an eloquent meditation on love and loss.
HuffPost