The dark world of desire. One day, young Mari meets a much older, fascinating man. She follows him to a lonely island, where he is working on the translation of a novel whose heroine meets a cruel fate—just like his own wife years before. Mari becomes increasingly entangled in a dark relationship with him, full of pain but also full of desire. However, the situation threatens to escalate. Ogawa is original, elegant—and very unsettling. Hilary Mantel. Ogawa plays with the power of language. Publishers Weekly.