First Love
Translated by Louise Heal Kawai
About
When college student Kanna Hijiriyama is arrested for the gruesome murder of her father, she tells police only this: "It's up to you to find the motive." As media frenzy erupts around the woman "too beautiful to be a killer," clinical psychologist Yuki Makabe is asked to counsel Kanna before trial. What Yuki uncovers — about Kanna's father, her mother, and the person she calls her "first love" — reveals a history far darker than the crime itself. Rio Shimamoto constructs a psychological thriller that works like an excavation, each session between therapist and patient removing another layer of carefully maintained deception. The relationship between Yuki and Kanna becomes its own kind of suspense — who is really in control of these conversations? A novel about the stories we build to survive our pasts — and what happens when someone finally asks the right questions.
