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    Confessions: A Novel
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    Confessions: A Novel
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    Confessions: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    Confessions: A Novel

    Written by Kanae Minato

    Narrated by Elaina Erika Davis and Noah Galvin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she will have her revenge.

    After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.

    But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge.

    Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions probes the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateAug 19, 2014
    ISBN9781478953913
    Unavailable
    Confessions: A Novel

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    Reviews for Confessions

    4/5

    471 ratings41 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Yuko Moriguchi lives her life trying to make sure that her four-year-old daughter, Manami, has a perfect upbringing. As a single mother who teaches full-time, this isn’t always an easy feat. Moriguchi’s able to have Manami come to the middle school she works at and have a handful of students watch over her while she wraps up the day’s lose ends. Everything is going perfectly until the day it all ends. The day that Manami is found floating, dead, in the school pool. How could this have happened?Manami’s death is ruled an accident and Moriguchi returns to the school after a week away, but she soon decides she can no longer be there and tenders her resignation. On her last day, Moriguchi delivers a lecture that will change the lives of her students. She tells the story of her past, her daughter, and reveals the fact that Manami’s death was no accident, but that two students in this class murdered her. Moriguchi’s speech is her revenge, but does her plot end with the last word of her lecture or is there more at stake?Kanae Minato is an absolutely amazing writer! Minato blew me away with PENANCE earlier this year and CONFESSIONS was no different. This is the story of one woman’s heartbreak and the lengths that she is willing to go in order to enact revenge for her daughter’s death. The opening of CONFESSIONS starts with Moriguchi and her delivering her last lecture to her class in which she makes several startling revelations. These revelations, as well as her blatant confession of her revenge plot, have a radiating effect on the students of her class. Each subsequent chapter is then told by another narrator who has been impacted by Moriguchi’s speech. In these chapters the reader is greeted with an opportunity to learn all angles of Manami’s death, as well as how Moriguchi’s revenge has changed the narrator’s life. As with PENANCE, I found Minato’s delivery of shocking events in this book to be extremely subtle and incredibly effective. I love the way every detail was thought out and the way Minato linked each narrator’s story to the others in the book. Revenge is a fascinating topic and CONFESSIONS is the ultimate tale of the impact it can have.
    • 3/5
      After her four-year-old daughter is found dead under suspicious circumstances, a middle school teacher puts into action a plan for revenge.This book started out very strong. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, who fills in more details surrounding the girl's death and subsequent events, beginning with her mother's account as told to her entire class. I couldn't put it down for the first half or so, but when we get to the final two narratives, it starts to falter. The stories become repetitious, and the twists come out of left field, seemingly thrown in more for shock value than anything else. But really, this is a story about mothers and their children. There are a couple of very bad mothers in this book, and their children are also very bad. Hmm, not sure I'm buying the blatant mother-blaming here. In terms of learning more about Japanese culture from the inside, this was an interesting read, but as a thriller, it fell short for me.
    • 4/5
      An intricate story, told in the view and perspective of many different characters involved in the murder of a 4-year old daughter of a secondary school teacher.

      The story unfolds itself , revealing the reason for the murder and relationship which ties the characters together.

      Definitely interesting, although a bit boring from the beginning, told by the school teacher.
    • 5/5
      This was different. I enjoy it very much. Keep my attention.
    • 5/5
      An enjoyable read with interesting characters. I recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      It was a decent, fast read. There definitely were twists and turns and the story was gripping but there’s really no one to root for. I enjoyed reading this book but it also left me feeling empty. What was I supposed to gain from this? It was clear the author wanted to impart some message onto the reader about crime and punishment, cause and effect, but what? It’s a tangled web that leaves everyone a victim and perpetrator of their own choices.
    • 5/5
      wow this is a really great psych out. you kind of know what is coming but you still want to here it.
    • 5/5
      The atypical pacing of this truly page turner of a novel is part of its glory. The author chooses to not only tell the narrative “out of order”, but also skips perspectives frequently for chapters at a time and then may have a minor character as well as various other major characters dispersed in the “unraveling of a plot” the reader is given very early on when the novel starts with the teacher making the “normal year end speech” to her class of prepubescent middle schoolers but the reader is surprised to learn the teacher is announcing her “retirement “ after only 7 years of teaching. Her pupils ask it it’s “because of the incident that happened at school” and the teacher admits that it is indeed.
      It becomes very apparent in the first chapter that the teacher knows her 4 year old daughter who was declared dead earlier in the school year when she supposedly fell in the school’s pool, did not die at the unfortunate hands of an unavoidable accident , but even more horrifying is that the teacher tells the class she knows her daughter was murdered and she knows who the 2 murderers are.
      From there we get a cat and mouse game of revenge when this grieving mother dedicates her life to “gaining revenge “ for her daughter and rather than involve the police since the kids would fall under juvenile law, the teacher decides to play her own kinds of mind games to bring the murderers out . But will she push them to far before she gets her answers ?!?of a ni Japanese middle school teacher and single mother to a 4 year old daughter who she recently lost due to an apparent accident at the school’s pool where ther girl allegedly fell in and drown
      I love it started out in the teachers perspective and at the end of the school year, so this isn’t a “whodunnit” as much as a “whydtheyddoit since we learn very early who is
    • 4/5
      Not bad at all. It took getting used to the cultural differences but besides that it was a pretty interesting and different book.
    • 4/5
      Great book! Not really sure where it's gonna go in the beginning, but the story is twisted and wonderful!
    • 5/5
      Totally blew away my expectations. I loved it from beginning to end. You have to hang in there in the beginning but well worth it!
    • 5/5
      Confessions by Kanae Minato first appeared in 2008. Mulholland Books published the English translation in 2014. Translations of novels by Asian authors fascinate me because of the difficulty of crossing both language and cultural lines. Readers may have reactions such as, “that could never happen here because…” and then the story loses meaning and becomes an object of curiosity rather than literature. That does not happen with this novel in part because of its universal themes. There is confession as a need to confess (guilt) and a desire to confess (pride). Inevitably, there will be back stories that lead to situations requiring confession. This novel relies on only three main characters to tell a complex tale. A second level has three characters. Characters outside the group of six are props and not well developed because there is no need to do so.

      Names present a problem because characters are sometimes referred to by one word which could be a family name, a first name, a nickname, or a nickname that is used only for school colleagues. It is a small problem worth mentioning, and readers should not feel shy about going back a few pages for clarification. This difficulty became a problem for me because I listened to the audiobook available to me with a Scribd subscription. The novel has eight chapters and lasts six hours. I can sometimes only approximate the spelling of character names.

      Readers first meet teacher Moriguchi as she is meeting her seventh-grade class on the last day before Spring Break. She wants to tell them one final story before she retires. Moriguchi has only taught a total of seven years but explains that her early retirement was prompted by the death of her four-year-old daughter. Police ruled the drowning death accidental, but Moriguchi knows this is not true. Two children in the class killed her daughter. She knows this because one of them confessed to Moriguchi. From the confession, she knows the identity of the second boy. Police have closed the case, and although Manami’s mom could reopen the case of infant death, she has decided not to do so. Moriguchi knows the laws relating to juvenile punishment means the perpetrators would receive little in the way of meaningful sentences.

      Moriguchi relates the story of the killing of daughter Manami without identifying the killers to the class by name. She will call them A and B. She will tell the class why law enforcement and judgments by courts are not enough. Moriguchi will say to the class that not only does she want revenge; she has set the revenge in motion during her presentation that day. The children had been drinking milk provided fee by a dairy company during the recent semester. All the children had finished their milk before hearing Moriguchi’s story. Because she knows the two students who were responsible for the death of her daughter, it was easy for Moriguchi to target two milk cartons and inject solutions designed to promote growth of the AIDS virus. Her revenge would continue for years.

      Aside from the stories of characters, there is an examination of the Japanese education system, one that author Minato has accused of inverting the relationship between parents and students. Parents give rewards to students in return for good grades. Bad behavior by children is allowed if they only promise to study. In some households, children call parents by their first names. There are “cram schools” which children attend after returning home from daily school and after a meal. Children want to excel not to disappoint their parents. For children who don’t care about disappointing parents, a complex system of rewards serves as motivation.

      There are several stories of dysfunctional families. In one, the birth mother reads technical engineering books and advanced literature to her four-year-old son. When he is less than perfect, she physically beats him. After a divorce, the abusive mother will become more agreeable. The son will grow to love her. She will abandon him to the custody of his father and promise to return whenever the son needs her help. She will never return.

      In another family, the son can never make his mother proud. She encourages him a lot and intercedes with others when they fail to recognize his greatness. Eventually, she will become subservient to her son. The son’s father spends much time at work and is rarely seen.

      Moriguchi is a single parent but maintains a complicated relationship with the father of her daughter Manami both before and after the child’s death.

      I don’t want to post spoilers for this story. Describing the characters will result in spoilers. As a Western reader, I found it difficult to appreciate the complex bundle of children appearing in the story. Many children under thirteen years old, pubescent and pre-pubescent, look as adults trapped in child bodies. The casual acceptance of death at such an early age surprises me. Moriguchi, an adult teacher, surprises me also. She demonstrates an unbelievable acceptance of her child’s death and a desire to treat the killers fairly. As the story continues, childhood characters will evolve, but not by much. The story takes place in less than one year. Moriguchi will alter her views as well.

      Readers will find enjoyment in the backstories of what led the characters to their eventual fates. There is a very satisfying surprise ending, which illustrates problems with the internet, boastful posts, and privacy issues. I highly recommend this five-star Amazon read or listen.

    • 5/5
      This book was completely shocking and a great surprise! I couldn't put it down and look forward to reading another book by the author!
    • 5/5
      So not what I expected. Left me on the edge of my seat wanting more!
    • 2/5
      The first chapter was intriguing, and, based on the reviews and the interesting premise set up by chapter one, I thought the book would be outstanding. By the fourth chapter I wanted to stop listening, but again, based on the high reviews (the brilliant "twists and turns"), I kept listening. I wish I hadn't. The ending was... implausible; then again, the entire plot had holes in it.

      I don't understand why this book got such glowing reviews. I found the writing trite (perhaps the beauty was lost in the translation); the fourth and fifth chapters repetitive; and the ending not worth the ride.

      What a shame. The first chapter, while it did have plot holes, was an interesting set up for a novel.
    • 3/5
      So torn on this book. The story was (for the most part) interesting but the writing style felt very immature and amateurish. Each chapter tells a first person account of the death of A four year old, each chapter changing the truth of the matter a little. This retelling got a bit boring so that the last POV was a bit of a slog. The last chapter brought everything together and finally gave us what happened afterwards but there ended up being so many little “gotchas” through the book that it just ended up very unrealistic and silly. That being said, it did hold my interest well enough that I finished it quickly.
    • 5/5
      Daaaaaamn!More thoughts to come...(While it looks like it took me 2 days to finish this book, I actually started it around 7pm-ish on Saturday and finished it around 2am-ish on Sunday -- could NOT put it down!)
    • 5/5
      They say revenge is best delivered cold and this book is spICY! It moves and reads FAST with hairpin twists. Plotted really well and I enjoyed the peek into darker aspects of Japanese school culture/society. Recommended!
    • 5/5
      Very interesting book. Lots of unexpected twists and turns. If you like psychological mysteries this one if for you.
    • 5/5
      I was hooked the entire way through. The perspectives were wonderful, and kept surprising me.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Wow! Don't let the first 5 minutes deter you it definitely picks up and there are several surprises in the book that left me with my jaw dropped open! I love how the story is oupined and then re-told from the perspective of several characters. Highly recommend this book!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Recently listened to audiobook version. This is a book full of surprises. Twist and turns right up to the end. It is a highly entertaining review of society and the educators who are responsible for preparing our most valuable asset, our children. It asks and answers the question: what would you do if you knew that a young person was a cold-bloodied killer? That the first victim was your own child? Confession deals smartly with this very issue in a way that I found refreshingly original.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I like thrillers and just stumbled upon this book. All I have to say is WOW! It was so engrossing, twisty and twisted. This was excellent!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Gripping from beginning to end. I went in with no expectations or notion of it whatsoever and I can say it was surprise after surprise to the very last words. An amazing book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A macabre death of a little girl - but not accidental, a murder- who's truly to blame? This is the dilemma explored in a tale spun in a matter of fact tone from a variety of characters' first person narratives: a middle school teacher (the mother of Manami, the girl), the middle school students involved, the mother & sister of one of the accused, and a fellow classmate. Each first person narrative (subsequent chapters, carefully orchestrated to reveal more and more about the actual details leading up to the death and the aftermath) is weirdly acceptable- from that person's point of view. I found it somewhat sensationalistic (what middle school teacher would get away with the speech she gives to her students in chap 1??) But the further I read, the more I succumbed to the author's carefully woven storyline and character studies; her understanding of young teens' dramas, angst and perceptions were spot on (Japanese to be sure, but universal middle school world, I believe). The misguided, "helicopter parent"/mom's perspective was painful to read, knowing how things end up...but still so sadly realistic. As much as a psychological portrait of Japanese cultural pressures and young teens' private worlds as it is a murder "mystery".... I am not sure how to categorize this. Definitely a challenging read -translation is excellent, so it's not a matter of reading level- but the thought & patience required of the reader to follow each of these narrators through such a convoluted tragedy. Unique, disturbing, and masterful.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I found the style a bit odd in the beginning but the story and plot twists were so good I soon got wrapped up in it. Good overall read!

      3 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      The great reviews drew me in, but weren’t enough to keep me. I really tried, surely it would get better! The reviews are great!

      I only had three chapters left, but just didn’t care enough about how it ended. Never once did it draw me in and keep me interested. Gold star for sticking with it as long as I did.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Un usual and complex story. Great naration. Did not want to pur this down.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I believe this was my first read from the 'Japanese thriller' genre, and it did not disappoint. Dark, twisty, and totally unique, the story of a teacher's revenge after some students murder her daughter. Told from 5 different points of view - I thought it was absolutely riveting and read it in less than a day.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Clever storytelling. The production makes it easy to listen to and finish in one sitting. Perfect for long drives/flights.

      1 person found this helpful