Author: Stephanie Scott

ISBN: 9780385544702

Pages: 331 | Price: $26.95

Release Date: 4/21/2020

Publisher: Doubleday

Learn more about the book and its author at: stephaniescottauthor.com

Sometimes you read a piece of passion-related crime and wonder what motivated the incident. What were the stories leading up to the crime? What emotions were involved? Why?

The most compelling part of the What’s Left of Me is Yours is a note from the editor, Margo Shickmanter. She shares how she heard about an international story, a passion of crime. Ten years later, this manuscript takes that story and explores all the dimension of the love triangle.

Summary | Betrayal, love, and the price we pay for the lies we tell: all are at the center of Stephanie Scott’s gripping debut novel. Set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime that captured the world’s attention in 2010, this tale of love and murder is based on nine years of intricate research.

Scott brilliantly provides a bird’s-eye view of the “wakaresaseya” (literally “breaker-upper”) industry, and interviewed defense attorneys, police officers, families, and anthropologists in order to leave no stone unturned in her portrayal of contemporary Japan. This novel follows a young woman’s search for the truth about her mother’s life — and the affair that shattered a family.

The story line is haunting. A daughter attempts to learn more about her mother by understanding how the events ended up so tragic. It’s also incomprehensible that an industry called “wakaresaseya” is striking as something to break up marriages.

While the book length of more than 300 pages is a little daunting, it’s hard to put down. Avid readers will race through the book to find out the ending. It is an emotional book, filled with sadness, nostalgia and even a little anger as hope is crushed at the end.

Author | Stephanie Scott is a Singaporean-British writer who was born and raised in Southeast Asia. She read English literature at the Universities of York and Cambridge and holds an Master of Studies in creative writing from Oxford University. She was awarded a British Association of Japanese Studies Toshiba Studentship for her anthropological work on What’s Left of Me Is Yours and has been made a member of the British Japanese Law Association as a result of her research. She has won the A. M. Health Prize and the Jerwood/Arvon Price for Literature; this is her first novel.