Abstract

Fourth-grader Michio Maya lives in N Town, recently beset by a series of killings of cats and dogs, their legs broken and their mouths stuffed with soap. Visiting his home, Michio discovers the hanging body of his classmate S, which has mysteriously vanished by the time the police arrive. Weirder still, S, reincarnated in spider form, appears in Michio’s home and entreats him in a high-pitched voice to find his killer. Michio and his sister Mika suspect homeroom teacher Iwamura of his murder, their suspicions deepened by the discovery of Iwamura’s perverted predilection for minors—including S himself—and the novel the teacher wrote under a penname that details the murder of young boys. Then in a further bizarre turn of events, Michio discovers that elderly neighbour Taizo is responsible for mutilating the animals—but that it was S that killed them first. Michio realises that S has spun a web of deception surrounding his life and death, and sets out to fashion his own version of the story, one that will come closer to the truth of the chilling incidents, but in the process compels him to become a killer himself.

Author’s Information

Mystery and science-fiction writer Michio Tsuzuki (1929-2003) inspired Shusuke Michio’s penname (and surely the protagonist’s name in the current work!). The author, born in 1975, won a prize for his short fiction in 2002 before gaining particular attention with the Horror and Suspense Special Prize for his novel Se no me [Eyes in the Back] in 2004. Himawari no sakanai natsu was his breakthrough novel in 2005. Among a prolific output for which he has received numerous awards, some of his most famous novels apart from the present work are Karasu no oya-yubi [Crow’s Thumb] (2008) and Tsuki to kani [Moon and Crab] (2011), which won him the Naoki Prize. None of his works is yet to be published in English