Translated by Alison Watts.
Published 16th June 2022 by Bitter Lemon Press.
From the cover of the book:
Set in Tokyo over the course of one night, Aki and Hiro have decided to be together one last time in their shared flat before parting.Their relationship has broken down after a mountain trek during which their guide died inexplicably. Now each believes the other to be a murderer and is determined to extract a confession before the night is over.
Who is the murderer and what really happened on the mountain? In the battle of wills between them, the chain of events leading up to this night are gradually revealed in a gripping psychological thriller that keeps the reader in suspense to the very end.
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Aki and Hiro's relationship has broken down in the wake of a mountain trek holiday, during which their guide mysteriously died. Each of them is secretly convinced that the other is guilty of murder, and the uncomfortable atmosphere that has grown between them means they can no longer live together under the same roof.
This is the last night they will spend in each other's company in their Tokyo apartment, now devoid of furniture, and each of them is determined to get the other to confess. A battle of wills plays out moment by tense moment, laying bare their pasts, exactly what they mean to each other, and whether they will survive to see the next day.
Having read Riku Onda's stunning book The Aosawa Murders, I couldn't wait to immerse myself in her mesmerising writing once more in Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight. Once again, the translator Alison Watts, has worked her magic to produce something that is flooded with everything I love about Japanese fiction, and she deserves the highest praise for being able to do this with such accomplished subtlety.
This is essentially a murder mystery, as in The Aosawa Murders, but as before Riku Onda transforms it into something deliciously dreamlike, speculative and surreal, making it much more about the taut relationship between two people and the truth about what lies between them, rather than just the facts of the case.
As the night progresses, Aki and Hiro run through the events of what happened leading up to the death of the guide, including reflections on their pasts, which builds in a sensuous slow-burn. The narrative swaps back and forth between them, almost like a series of calculated moves in a fraught game of chess, showing their private thoughts, and their external reactions. This brings in a beautiful contrast between the two, as what they are each thinking is often very different to how they look and speak to each other.
Onda times her cleverly conceived reveals with precision, blindsiding you with shifts in your perception about what is actually going on between Aki and Hiro. Sometimes these reveals are precipitated with barely disguised menace, particularly through the use of Hiro's pocket knife. As is her forte, she uses all the senses, half-recalled memories, and distorted imagery to both misdirect and inform by turns, making best use of the play of light at pivotal moments - as in dappled sunlight - and there is such lovely symbolism in the notion that Aki and Hiro are circling each other like fish under the shifting surface of a claustrophobic pond. It's superb!
Strange, suspenseful, absorbing, dysfunctional, and ever so seductive, this is Japanese crime fiction at its exquisite best.
Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight is available to by now in ebook and paperback.
Thank you to Bitter Lemon Press for sending me a paperback copy of this book, in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Riku Onda, born in 1964, has been writing fiction since 1991 and has published prolifically since. She has won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, the Japan Booksellers' Award, the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize and the Naoki Prize. Her work has been adapted for film and television.
About the translator:
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