Pull Me Under - Couverture rigide

Luce, Kelly

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0374238588 ISBN 13 : 9780374238582

Editeur : Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2016

Synopsis

A searing debut novel from one of the most imaginative minds in fiction

Chizuru Akitani is the twelve-year-old daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese "Living National Treasure" Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is tormented by her classmates and targeted by the most relentless bully of them all, Tomoya Yu. When Chizuru's mother dies suddenly her father offers her no comfort and she is left feeling alone and unmoored. At school, her bully's cruelty intensifies, and in a moment of blind rage, Chizuru grabs a Morimoto letter opener from her teacher's desk and fatally stabs Tomoya Yu in the neck.

For the next seven years, Chizuru is institutionalized. Her father visits her just twice before ultimately disowning her. Upon release, Chizuru flees Japan for a new identity and life in the United States. Determined to outrun her murderous past, she renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries a loving man, and soon has a daughter. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, announcing the death of her father, Rio feels compelled to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years, leaving her husband and her daughter confused and bereft. Going back to her homeland, and to the scene of her complicated past, feels like stepping into a strange and familiar dream. When she unexpectedly reconnects with Miss Danny, who had been her beloved teacher at the time of the stabbing, long-kept secrets are unearthed, forcing Rio to confront her past in ways she never imagined, and to decide if she will reveal to her family who she once was.

Full of atmospheric and illuminating descriptions of Japan and its culture, Pull Me Under is an affecting exploration of home, identity, and the limits of forgiveness. Kelly Luce has written a bold and psychologically complex first novel that grips and dazzles from start to finish.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

'Fierce and suspenseful... Written with precise and spectacular beauty.' Laura van den Berg

On a cloudless afternoon in the peaceful Shikoku city of Tokushima, twelve-year-old Chizuru Akitani walked into the staff room at Motomachi Elementary, covered with blood and clutching a letter opener.

Chizuru Akitani is the daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese Living National Treasure Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is relentlessly tormented at school. When her mother dies suddenly and the cruelty at school only intensifies, Chizuru snaps in a moment of blind rage and fatally stabs a classmate in the neck.

After seven years of institutionalisation, Chizuru flees Japan for a new life in the United States. She renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries and has a daughter, determined to keep her past a secret. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep announcing the death of her father, she feels compelled to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years. Back in her homeland, long-kept secrets are suddenly unearthed and Rio's dark past is thrust back into her life.

Full of sensual descriptions of Japan, its culture, and its language, Pull Me Under is a fierce and suspenseful exploration of home, identity, and the limits of forgiveness.

'Phenomenal . . . captivates and disquiets in its search for answers about the parts of ourselves that are unknowable.' Electric Literature

'Psychologically complex; inspires horror, sympathy and even, at times, humour.' Japan Times

'Beautifully written and utterly hypnotic.' Bustle

'Propulsive and fresh . . . Luce knows how to end her story, and does so satisfyingly.' Chicago Tribune

Revue de presse

Revelatory. --Elle

Both dark and illuminating. Reminds you just how many lives women can, or must, lead simultaneously in order to survive. Kelly Luce has amazing control over this fragmented experience with a narrator that draws you into the eye of the storm. --Olivia Sudjic

A suspense novel with a female protagonist that gets more right about women than so many others. --National Public Radio

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Date d'édition: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0374238588
• ISBN 13: 9780374238582
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 264