Rainbirds

 

A debut novel of Clarissa Goenawan (available on ipusnas).

A mystery novel about Ren Ishida, an almost graduate English student of Keio University, went to Akakawa, a city where her sister lived in. Her sister was practically the one who took care of him best when their parents were always fighting and leaving the house all day without caring of him and her sister. He got so attached to his sister until one day she decided to move to Akakawa and became an English course teacher. It had been 7 years since the last time he met her, although they frequently called each other once a week, but before he could meet her again, she was already murdered. The devastating news hit him strike and regrets were unavoidable. He went to the city and single-handedly take care of his sister funeral since their parent wouldn't care anyway. Honda, her sister's colleague, handed him a hand to take care of her things and everything. As Ren stayed in that city, he began wondering whether he really knew her sister really well and began to find out the truth why she was killed.

The gloomy of the city and Ren's character are strongly depicted throughout the story. While unveiling the mystery, the author doesn't serve such a kind of surprising events or any kind of uproar a thriller story would usually do. The story is circling around about Ren's state of mind and his journey while staying for a while in that fictional city. I am a typical reader who like a surprise, sometimes, in fact the plot of this story serves that yet not quite strong to fulfill my thirst. But I believe, some of other readers are fully into this novel and can refer a lot to this nice debut novel.