Kanae Minato (1973–) A Japanese novelist who made her literary debut with "Kokuhaku" in 2008, after the story "Seishokusha," which became its opening chapter, won the Shosetsu Suiri New Writers Prize in 2007. "Kokuhaku" went on to win the 2009 Japan Booksellers' Award. Minato has also received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for the short story "Bokyo, Umi no Hoshi" and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for "Utopia." She is known for psychological mysteries that explore malice, guilt, and revenge within families, schools, and other close relationships, often revealing an event through the conflicting perspectives of several characters. In "Kokuhaku," a middle-school teacher announces to her class that two of her students were responsible for her daughter's death, setting in motion a series of accounts by the teacher, students, and their families that gradually reveal sharply different versions of the same crime.
