Take this as a preview rather than a review. Why, this book has not been translated into English yet. The prominent Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino has written more than sixty novels but only eleven had been translated and published in English so far.
The latest, A Death in Tokyo, was published in Dec. 2022 by Minotaur Books. Its original Japanese title 麒麟の翼 (The Wing of the Kirin) was actually published in Japan more than ten years ago in 2011. I’ve read eight of Higashino’s translated mystery, including A Death in Tokyo. So, after finishing it, I thought I would have to wait a few years before I have the chance to devour another.
That’s why I couldn’t believe what I found when I came across The Swan and the Bat in our local library. Not sure if it’s Higashino’s latest but it was published in Japan in 2021, and translated into Traditional Chinese language published in Taiwan in 2022. And it’s brand new, beautiful and untouched in its transparent plastic wrap.
Here’s the synopsis of the story. A respected lawyer in Tokyo is murdered. Not long after that, a man goes to the police and gives himself up, confessing that he’s the murderer and not only that, revealing that he had committed a previous unsolved murder thirty years ago. The novel touches on issues such as the propriety of the statute of limitations, and the impact of crime on the victim’s family as well as the culprit’s. The puzzling thing is, why does this man take the initiative to go to the police and offer his confession on both crimes?
Not sure what the future English translation will be like but reading the Chinese version, there are words and concepts we seldom find in mystery novels written in English: sin and redemption, guilt and forgiveness, and the readiness to offer apology. Characters are bound more by their conscience than the law. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov gets away with murder for a while, trying to rationalize his way out of psychological torments. Higashino’s character does not rationalize but sacrifice.
A thoroughly intriguing read. Different from previous Higashino’s novels in that The Swan and the Bat has a more contemporary setting where social media plays a major role in the court of public opinion, radiating added pain in the victim’s and the perpetrator’s family. Rather than depending on the police to solve the crimes, two people from families on opposing sides of the adversarial legal system play Sherlock on their own, making the novel more complex and captivating.
If this will be translated into English in the future, I would not hesitate to read it again. The Swan and the Bat (title might be changed in the English version) has become my best Keigo Higashino book replacing The Devotion of Suspect X which sits securely in second place.
Thank you to Dolce Bellezza for hosting Japanese Literature Challenge for the sixteenth year.
Ripple Effects 
So cool you were able to read it already!
I really enjoy this author, and yes The Devotion of Suspect X is also so far my favorite.
But wow, this one indeed sounds so so good!
I have recently read A Death in Tokyo, though my review is stll in thr works!
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This one is way better than A Death in Tokyo. Hope you can read it some day, in whatever language translation available to you. 🙂
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Thanks, I’ll check in French
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Oh yes, I have already read your review and commented. But now I wonder, is it in the Kaga series as well?
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You’re right. It’s not a detective Kaga mystery. But after that I had also read another one and that’s with Kaga in it but the protagonist is another younger detective under his helm, apparently related to him. That’s a good one but I didn’t write a post on it. It’s title, I’ll translate it into English as: “The Thread of Hope.” See if you can find it in another translated language.
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Thanks. I’ll first read book 4 in the Kaga series, and go from there
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Don’t you wish we could read Japanese? 😆
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I do. I started learning too late though, and it’s slow going, as I have lots of other things to do, lol
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I can only read English and Chinese (traditional, not the simplified) Tried and tried to learn French but to no avail. It was way back in college that I took a couple courses but that was decades ago. And you thought it’s easy in Canada to learn French. Not so if you don’t need to use it here in western Canada. 😐
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Well if you can read Chinese, you can read French, lol! If you are interested, I do give classes, including French for reading
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Haha good to know. As you can tell from my review blog Ripple Effects, I’m a cinephile writing mostly about films. I’ve found watching French films is a good way to learn the language (of course while reading the English subtitles). BTW, since you’re learning Japanese, have you tried watching Japanese films? That would definitely help. There are quite a few award winning ones in recent years.
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Thanks, I have been watching some anime. Subtitles from French movies is tricky, and actually between any language I assume. When you work to give subtitles to movies, you are given a set number of characters for each frame, (so the watchers have the time to read), and so it’s not unusual that the subtitle doesn’t completely correspond to what actors are saying, things are often skipped, because it would take too many letters! I was asked to work into subtitles at one point, and when I discovered it worked this way, i stopped. It was too hard for me not to translate all that was said!!
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Never knew the mechanics of writing subtitles. That sounds like an almost impossible task.
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Subtitling: that what I thought, especially for perfectionists lol
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This sounds fascinating. What a pity that his works aren’t better translated.
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His mystery novels are very different from the mystery genre of English publications. It’s always interesting to discover cultural differences, and yes, the foods and drinks as well. Here, lots of lattes. 🙂
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You are very clever to read Chinese, I can read a bit, but it is hard.
I had forgotten about Suspect X, but now I have been reminded, yes that was a great read. I had been looking out for a nice atmospheric thriller to have on my Kindle, so I have gone for the first Kaga book, I really hope to be able to read the Swan and Bat one day.
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Denise, so glad to see you come back. Yes, I can say I’m fully bilingual as I was born and raised in Hong Kong, had 9 years of schooling there before immigrating to Canada. I only speak Cantonese though, and read Traditional Chinese writing, not Simplified. I will surely look more carefully in our libraries for more Higashino books in translation. On another note, have you watched any of the Oscar nominated movies?
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