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PENANCE

by KANAE Minato

Description

When they were girls, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into leaving their friend Emily with a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurred: Emily was found murdered hours later.
The four friends were never able to describe the stranger to the police; the killer's trail went cold. Asako, the bereaved mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will be the ones to pay for her daughter's murder...

Like Confessions, Kanae Minato's award-winning, internationally bestselling debut, PENANCE is a dark tale of revenge and psychological drama that will leave readers breathless.

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PENANCE

More Information

Rights Information






  • Rights sold: world English, Brazil, France, Germany, Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand






Marketing Information

Sales figures: over 1,000,000 copies in Japan



Finalist for the 2018 EDGAR AWARD for Best Paperback Original
"As ethereal and literary as it is a sharp, tight crime novel." --A Literary Hub Best Crime Book of the Year

Endorsements




Emily’s note


I read Confessions when it was just published in Japan and was amazed that Kanae Minato had managed to create a new genre of crime novel and believed she would be huge in the future. I was eager to publish the book then but lost the auction. So, I kept my eye on her next books. I signed Penance, For N, and Night Tightrope before Confessions was published in Taiwan. When Confessions became hugely successful there, I had already signed most of her books. And she became the Queen of crime novel. Higashino Keigo is the King of crime novel.









In Japan, they have a morning true crime TV program. The journalist interviews different people who were witness to a crime and they talk about their points of view. I like to watch it because you find different angles of the truth. When I read Kanae Minato’s fiction, I believed she must be the big fan of this program. She was a house wife and loved to watch this TV program and then created her own writing style. At that time, I offered for Night Tightrope and waited for one year without any news. After one year, the sub-agent in Taiwan asked me if I wanted to keep on waiting or giving up? I said I will never give up Kanae Minato’s book. Finally I got the contract. Kanae Minato’s books became abestseller in Taiwan.


It was worth the wait!





Reviews




A chilling Japanese psychological thriller about four women, forever connected by one horrible day in their childhood--fifteen years later, someone wants to make sure they never forget.




Author Biography




KANAE Minato (湊かなえ, Japanese author, born 1973) has been described in Japan as "the queen of iyamisu." Iyamisu (eww mystery) is a subgenre of mystery fiction which deals with grisly episodes and the dark side of human nature. Readers blurt out "eww" when they are reading iyamisu novels. The term was created in 2006 by the mystery critic Aoi Shimotsuki.


The English edition of Minato's Confessions, published in August 2014, was described by a critic as "the Gone Girl of Japan."
Wall Street Journal selected Confessions as one of the 10 best mysteries of 2014




Emily Publishing Company

Emily Publishing Company

Founded in 2012 by Emily Chuang. Emily Publishing mainly publishes translated fiction, non-fiction and children's picture books and starts to represent selected books from Taiwan and Japan to all over the world since 2019.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Futabasha
  • Orginal LanguageJapanese
  • ISBN/Identifier 9784488017569 / 4488017568
  • Publication Country or regionJapan
  • FormatHardback
  • Primary Price 1,250 JPY
  • Pages256
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Original Language Title贖罪
  • Original Language Authors湊 かなえ
  • Copyright Year2009

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