Kanae MINATO (湊 かなえ, born 1973) is a Japanese writer of crime fiction and thriller.
She started writing in her thirties. Her first novel Confessions (告白, Kokuhaku) became a bestseller and won the Japanese Booksellers Award. The movie Confession directed by Tetsuya Nakashima was nominated to 2011 Academy Award.
She has been described in Japan as "the queen of iyamisu"(eww mystery), a subgenre of mystery fiction which deals with grisly episodes and the dark side of human nature.
This book was very interesting and brought out a lot of emotions while reading it. It was about two sisters, the older sister went missing 13 years ago. The younger sister became obsessed with her older sister's disappearance and started not being able to tell the difference between real and not real world. When the older sister returns after being missing for 13 years, the younger sister can’t trust her and keeps wondering if she is real or not. Reading this book gave me a perspective of people that go through trauma at a young age, and the bond between families.
This story is about a child's disappearance, but instead of focusing on the missing child or the search for culprit, it's a story about the sibling who was left behind. The shocking ending had me thinking what it means to be family, to be siblings. There is a Chinese saying which goes "blood is thicker than water". But what about the memories and time spent together? Do they count when it comes to definition of family? Short but impactful read indeed.