Summary

The prologue has a subtitle that reads: “Transcript of a police interview with Hisako Aosawa. Interviewer: Detective T—. File: Aosawa Murders, City of K—, I— Prefecture.” The prologue is formatted like an interview transcript. Questions are marked with italics, and answers are marked in regular text. Hisako Aosawa tells her interviewer that she remembers little about the day during her childhood when she witnessed a murder scene. All she remembers was that the room was blue, and there was a white crepe myrtle flower in full bloom in the room which she was very afraid of for some reason unknown to her.

“Part One: From the Sea” also contains a subtitle: “A conversation with Makiko Saiga, the author, 30 years after the murders.” Rather than transcript form, this section is presented as a running monologue in which Makiko frequently addresses a silent interviewer...