This is a novel, not manga, but it’s a Japanese novel from Vertical so it’s probably of interest to a lot of you out there. It came out this week, just in time for summer vacation. Read on for all the details.
A GIRL, A CAT, AND A LOVE TRIANGLE
“No cat equals no happy” in Mariko Koike’s tender, Fitzgeraldian suspense novel.
Recently widowed Goro Kawakubo, the dashing son of a famous artist, hires an au pair, Masayo, to care for his eight-year-old daughter, Momoko. Her only companion is her cat, Lala. Longing for a mother-figure in her life, Momoko demonstrates macabre tendencies, often retreating into a world only she and her cat occupy.
While Masayo wins over Momoko’s delicate heart, she quickly falls in love with Goro’s lifestyle and then the widower himself. One fateful night, Goro meets the gorgeous Chinatsu, an old flame who soon rekindles a fire in the artist. Masayo is tormented with jealousy but can do nothing but watch. The tension among the three women in Goro’s home climaxes with a shocking act of femme fatale vengeance.
The Cat in the Coffin is a hypnotic thriller that lures the reader into the darkness of the human heart—and the trickiness of feline charm.
Naoki Award-winner Mariko Koike is the only writer in Japan revered by both the romance and detective fiction communities for her works. After graduating from Seikei University with a degree in English and American Literature, Koike worked at a publishing house before establishing herself as Japan’s most distinguished woman mystery writer. Other seminal novels by Koike include Unaccompanied Music, The Crazy King’s Yard, and The Empty Opera, but she is also known for such short-story collections as The June Grave, Night Awakening, and Open Snow. The Cat in the Coffin is her first novel to appear in English.
June 09, 2009
192 pages, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
Trade Paperback
978-1-932234- 12-1
$14.95/$17.50 CAN
I just started reading this, and it is hard to put down.