Penance is the second novel I’ve read by Minato. I was hooked by her writing style/plot from Confessions and wanted to read more of her work. Like Confessions, Kanae Minato’s award-winning, internationally bestselling debut, Penance is a dark and voice-driven tale of revenge and psychological trauma that will leave readers breathless. Asako, Emily’s mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will pay for her daughter’s murder. Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko weren’t able to accurately describe the stranger’s appearance to the police after the Emily’s body was discovered. Then the unthinkable occurs: Emily is found murdered hours later. When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger. The tense, chilling story of four women haunted by a childhood trauma. I would only recommend it if you are looking for something dark, situated in the faraway land of Japan.Page Length: 240 pages (paperback edition) Penance is an interesting read about friendship, guilt, consequences and revenge, but IMHO Minato didn’t manage to make all the disparate themes dovetail into something potent and unforgettable. It was just excessive, irrational and left a bad taste in my mouth. I won’t want to drop spoilers so let’s just say it has something to do with a bear. But I have to say one of the revelations was particularly preposterous. Where Minato gets it right is in presenting the insidious nature of evil and how violence begets violence. Moreover, each of the girls description of the after-effects went on for too long and mostly in a dispassionate voice. But here it felt repetitive because the four ten-year-old girls observed the same aspects of the crime.

I have no issue with that when use well it can be a revelation. Like Confessions, Minato uses the same Rashomon-esque narrative tool – it’s basically looking at the same crime from four different perspectives. But Penance is not in the same ballpark, not even remotely close, proving once again that lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice.

Like most readers, I picked up Kanae Minato’s Penance after being awed by her debut Confessions and perhaps having seen the excellent film adaptation.

Penance minato kanae