Confessions

by Kanae Minato, Stephen Snyder (Translator)

Overview

In this international bestselling thriller, a former teacher delivers her final lesson to her students—including the two children that murdered her daughter.

After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.

But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge.

Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions probes the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316200912
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	08/19/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	35,691
File size:	382 KB

About the Author

Kanae Minato is an award-winning, internationally bestselling novelist and former home economics teacher and housewife who wrote her first novel between household chores. Minato lives in Japan.

Editorial Reviews

"It's time to unretire all of those back-of-the-book words that lost their meaning over the years-unputdownable, riveting, searing. CONFESSIONS is some uncanny kind of tour de force, and everyone should read it."—Charles Finch, Agatha Award-nominated author of The September Society and The Last Enchantments

Charles Finch

"Brilliantly original and chilling."

David Morrell

"Don't be fooled by the hypnotic beauty of Kanae Minato's prose. As the characters in CONFESSIONS are stripped of their secrets, the novel reveals its audacious dark heart. A pitch-perfect, riveting read."

Hilary Davidson

"Taut, unsettling and relentlessly engaging, CONFESSIONS is a book with claws, in more sense than one. I defy any fan of smart, unconventional crime writing to set this novel aside once they've started it."

Simon Lelic

"Kanae Minato is a brilliant storyteller, and CONFESSIONS is a superb and haunting work. As Minato expertly shifts the perspective from one character to the next, each change in perspective lends a startling new dimension to a gripping and profoundly unsettling tale. It's a novel I'll think about for a very long time."

Emily St. John Mandel

"A dark, dystopic portrait of Japanese adolescence gone wrong. If Albert Camus had written Heathers, it would have looked a lot like this."

Alex Marwood

"CONFESSIONS is a dark, disturbing tale that twists and turns on itself like an Escher print. Just when you think you know where this thriller is going, Kanae Minato throws back the curtain to reveal another face to the mystery. A Lord of the Flies for the modern world, Minato mines the dark specter of youth, while simultaneously demonstrating some of the deeper perils of our global culture."

Jenny Milchman

"This long-awaited English translation is a spellbinding read, a fascinating peek into modern Japanese society, and a glimpse into the dark corners of the human psyche."

Booklist (starred review)

"Captivating...as the murders grow bloodier and bloodier, the characters more and more twisted, we find ourselves fascinated and repulsed, unable to look away...CONFESSIONS undercuts prejudices with force and ferocity."

Becca Rothfield

"Minato's intricate plotting and unnervingly understated sentences make the horrors follow each other as logically as pearls on a string."

Annalisa Quinn

"A chilling and effective psychological thriller...a reader is almost certain to be caught off guard more than once... Implacable, relentless and stunning."

Tom Nolan

"A Japanese Gone Girl...CONFESSIONS will drop your jaw right to the floor. The most delightfully evil book you'll read this year. A gut-wrenching thrill-ride with clean, high-impact language."

Steph Cha

"Far deeper and larger, though no less entertaining, than expected. A nasty little masterpiece...that rare creature in fiction: an ambitious exploration into the darkest corners of human nature ... that is also a crackling good yarn ... Resistance to the novel's narrative momentum is futile; I read it in a single sitting ... Along the way I learned much--more, if truth be told, than I felt emotionally prepared to learn--about the damage inflicted by adults upon children, and the ways in which the young sometimes return it in kind, twisted and magnified... Books like CONFESSIONS can make you vibrate with happiness."

Kevin Nance

06/01/2014
"I think we regular people may have forgotten a basic truth—we don't really have the right to judge anyone else." Yuko Moriguchi leads a relatively simple life, teaching middle school and raising her four-year-old daughter, Manami, on her own. But when Manami is murdered in a sick act of hatred, Yuko decides the legal system is unreliable and plans her own revenge. She resigns from her teaching position but plants the seeds of fear into two of her former students. One is driven insane and homebound by her words, while the other becomes the class pariah and is violently bullied. Yuko's retaliation sets these two students on an irreversible path to the destruction of everyone around them. But Yuko is not finished teaching her last lesson. VERDICT This award-winning debut novel is a creepy and mesmerizing psychological thriller that challenges the conventions of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, and law vs. justice. There are no happy endings here, but Minato has pieced together an intriguing puzzle that will keep readers glued to their seats. Bound to appeal to fans of dark crime fiction or psychological drama/thrillers.—Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

Library Journal

★ 06/09/2014
The murder of a young science teacher’s trusting four-year-old daughter—by some of her own 13-year-old students—sets in motion a diabolic revenge plot with devastating collateral damage in Minato’s outstanding debut, which inspired the Oscar nominated film. Initially, single mother Yuko Moriguchi’s grief mixes with guilt when police rule little Manami’s death accidental; she accepts the blow as yet another in a lengthy series, including the HIV-positive diagnosis that Manami’s father received during Yuko’s pregnancy, which prompted him to break off their engagement. But when she subsequently discovers evidence that points to foul play, Yuko decides to draw on her knowledge of the culprits to exact retribution far more terrible than the punishment that would have been meted out to such youthful offenders by the authorities. The plan’s twisted genius emerges gradually through restrained first-person chapters narrated by Yuko and other principals. The suspense intensifies as the entire Machiavellian web only belatedly becomes clear. Minato, a homemaker and former home economics teacher, also spotlights the dysfunction that can fester beneath the tidy surface of Japanese society—as well as the searing fury of a mother’s love gone wrong. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR CONFESSIONS



- Winner of the ALA's 2015 Alex Award for the Best Adult Books That Appeal to Teen Audiences
- Nominated for the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel
- One of Booklist's Best Crime Novels of the Year

"Far deeper and larger, though no less entertaining, than expected. A nasty little masterpiece...that rare creature in fiction: an ambitious exploration into the darkest corners of human nature ... that is also a crackling good yarn ... Resistance to the novel's narrative momentum is futile; I read it in a single sitting ... Along the way I learned much—more, if truth be told, than I felt emotionally prepared to learn—about the damage inflicted by adults upon children, and the ways in which the young sometimes return it in kind, twisted and magnified... Books like Confessions can make you vibrate with happiness."—Kevin Nance, Chicago Tribune

"A Japanese Gone Girl...Confessions will drop your jaw right to the floor. The most delightfully evil book you'll read this year. A gut-wrenching thrill-ride with clean, high-impact language."—Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

"Kanae Minato is a brilliant storyteller, and CONFESSIONS is a superb and haunting work. As Minato expertly shifts the perspective from one character to the next, each change in perspective lends a startling new dimension to a gripping and profoundly unsettling tale. It's a novel I'll think about for a very long time."—Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven

"A chilling and effective psychological thriller...a reader is almost certain to be caught off guard more than once... Implacable, relentless and stunning."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"Captivating...as the murders grow bloodier and bloodier, the characters more and more twisted, we find ourselves fascinated and repulsed, unable to look away...CONFESSIONS undercuts prejudices with force and ferocity."—Becca Rothfield, New Republic

"This compulsively readable novel is dark, disturbing, and deceptive. . . . The writing in Confessions is sharp and fast-paced and the impact of each chapter ratchets up the tension."—Laura Eggertson, Toronto Star

"CONFESSIONS is a dark, disturbing tale that twists and turns on itself like an Escher print. Just when you think you know where this thriller is going, Kanae Minato throws back the curtain to reveal another face to the mystery. A Lord of the Flies for the modern world, Minato mines the dark specter of youth, while simultaneously demonstrating some of the deeper perils of our global culture."—Jenny Milchman, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Cover of Snow

"Don't be fooled by the hypnotic beauty of Kanae Minato's prose. As the characters in CONFESSIONS are stripped of their secrets, the novel reveals its audacious dark heart. A pitch-perfect, riveting read."—Hilary Davidson, Anthony Award-winning author of The Damage Done and Evil in All Its Disguises

"Brilliantly original and chilling."—David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as a Fine Art

"It's time to unretire all of those back-of-the-book words that lost their meaning over the years-unputdownable, riveting, searing. CONFESSIONS is some uncanny kind of tour de force, and everyone should read it."—Charles Finch, Agatha Award-nominated author of The September Society and The Last Enchantments

From the Publisher

"I read this riveting tale of murder, revenge and madness in one sitting, and it took my breath away. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. CONFESSIONS will grab you from the first chapter and won't let go until its stunning conclusion. Pick up this book when you have a few hours to read, because you won't be able to put it down."

Wendy Webb