Last Winter, We Parted A Novel

<p><b>Instantly reminiscent of the work of Osamu Dazai and Patricia Highsmith, Fuminori Nakamura s latest novel is a dark and twisting house of mirrors that philosophically explores the violence of aesthetics and the horrors of identity.</b></p>A young writer arrives at a prison to interview a convict. The writer has been commissioned to write a full account of the case, from the bizarre and grisly details of the crime to the nature of the man behind it. The suspect, a world-renowned photographer named Kiharazaka, has a deeply unsettling portfolio lurking beneath the surface of each photograph is an acutely obsessive fascination with his subject. <br>He stands accused of murdering two women both burned alive and will likely face the death penalty. But something isn t quite right. As the young writer probes further, his doubts about this man as a killer intensify, and he struggles to maintain his sense of reason and justice. Is Kiharazaka truly guilty, or will he die to protect someone else? <br>Evoking Truman Capote s <i>In Cold Blood</i> and Ry nosuke Akutagawa s Hell Screen, <i>Last Winter, We Parted</i> is a twisted tale that asks a deceptively sinister question: Is it possible to truly capture the essence of another human being?"