Kerri Sakamoto — The Electrical Field

Macmillan 1999 Hardback, 320pp. Set during the 1970s in suburban Ontario, this novel focuses on a multiple murder in a Japanese family. The action is seen through the eyes of Asako Saito, a seemingly ordinary, very lonely spinster who turns out to be central to the crime. Winner of the Commonwealth Prize for First Fiction, finalist for the Canadian Governor General Award, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize: a rare and haunting debut about memory and murder, the unusual friendship between an aging Japanese-Canadian woman and a young girl desperate to uncover the truth. DJ. (ISBN: 9780333744253). Very Good.