Abstract

In March 2018, a body without a head, arms and legs was found on the riverbed of the Yasu River in Moriyama City, Shiga.
As the body was in a fairly advanced stage of decomposition, it was difficult to even tell whether it belonged to a human or an
animal, but a subsequent investigation revealed that it belonged to a 58-year-old woman living nearby.
The woman separated from her husband more than 20 years ago and had been living with her 31-year-old daughter, who, after
graduating from a preparatory school, had spent nine years studying to pass medical school.
The police arrested the daughter in June on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. What on earth happened between the two of
them? The Curse of a Mother, the Prison of a Daughter is an emotionally charged nonfiction book written by a court reporter
based on a huge amount of correspondence she exchanged with the daughter in prison.

Author’s Information

Aya Saito
Born in Tokyo in 1995. After graduating from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, School of Science at Hokkaido University in March 2018, she joined Kyodo News.
After working at the Niigata Branch, she became a court reporter on the City Desk at the Osaka Branch. She resigned from the company as of the end of 2021. The Curse of a Mother, the Prison of a Daughter is her debut book