The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

From the critically-acclaimed author of Rainbirds comes a novel of mysterious circumstance and dark secrets: three people try to understand why their friend has committed suicide. Miwako Sumida has hanged herself at 20 years old, and those closest to her are struggling to understand why. In the months before her suicide, she abruptly dropped out of college and hid away in a remote mountainside village. But what, or whom, was she running from? Through the perspectives of three people--Ryusei, the boy who loved her; Chie, her best friend; and Fumi, Ryu's sister--we come to understand that Miwako Sumida was not the straightforward, untouchable person she presented to the world. Ryu begs Chie to take him to the place where Miwako spent her last days, and while he is away, Fumi receives an unexpected guest at their shared apartment in Tokyo, increasingly afraid that Miwako's death may ruin what's left of her brother's life. In a world of social exile, public diary entries, and ghosts among the living, Clarissa Goenawan gradually reveals the dark truth behind a young girl's suicide.