Silence Once Begun

From the remarkable, singularly and voraciously gifted novelist, poet, and artist («A young genius who hits all of the right notes» --Chicago Tribune), his first major hardcover publication: an astonishing novel of unjust conviction, lost love, and a journalist's obsession.

Over the course of several months, eight people vanish from their homes in the same Japanese town, a single playing card found on each door. Known as “the Narito Disappearances,” the crime has authorities baffled--until a confession appears on the police's doorstep, signed by Oda Sotatsu, a thread salesman. Sotatsu is arrested, jailed, and interrogated--but Sotatsu refuses to speak. Even as his parents, brother, and sister come to visit him, even as his execution looms, and even as a young woman named Jito Joo enters his cell, he maintains his vow of silence. Our narrator, Jesse Ball, is a journalist, grappling with mysteries of his own when he becomes fascinated by the case. Why did…