Silence Once Begun: a Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)

Over the course of several months, eight people vanish from their homes in the same Japanese town, a single playing card found on each door. Known as ?the Narito Disappearances,? the crime has authorities baffled?until a confession appears on the police?s doorstep, signed by one Oda Sotatsu, a thread salesman.
 
Sotatsu is arrested, jailed, and interrogated, but he refuses to speak. Even as his family comes to visit, even as his execution looms, and even as a young woman named Jito Joo enters his cell, he maintains his vow of silence. And as a journalist?s obsession uncovers more to the story, Jesse Ball spins a wildly inventive and emotionally powerful take of unjust conviction and lost love.