What's Left of Me Is Yours: A Novel

"Each chapter of this enrapturing novel is elegantly brief and charged with barely contained emotion." —New York Times Book Review A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny, What's Left of Me Is Yours charts a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life—and her murder. In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the wakaresaseya (literally “breaker-upper”), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, both assume it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitarō's job is to do exactly that—until he does it too well. While Rina remains ignorant of the circumstances that brought them together, she and Kaitarō fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter’s life. In an engrossing dual narrative inspired by a true crime, Stephanie Scott exquisitely renders the affair and its intricate repercussions. As Rina’s daughter, Sumiko, fills in the gaps of her mother’s story and her own memory, Scott probes the thorny psychological and moral grounds of the actions we take in the name of love, asking where we draw the line between passion and possession.

About the Author :
Stephanie Scott is a Singaporean and British writer who was born and raised in South East Asia. She read English Literature at York and Cambridge and holds an M.St in Creative Writing from Oxford. Scott was awarded a BAJS Toshiba Studentship for her anthropological work on her novel What's Left of Me Is Yours and has been made a member of the British Japanese Law Association as a result of her research. What's Left of Me Is Yours was named a Brooklyn Book Festival Debut of the Year and a Guardian / Observer Best Debut of 2020. She is based in Singapore and London.

Review :
“Enrapturing. . . . This richly imagined novel considers the many permutations of love and what we are capable of doing in its name.” —The New York Times Book Review “A finely written case history of a crime of passion.” —The Wall Street Journal “Mesmerizing.” —Los Angeles Times “Impossible to put down.” —Jamie Ford, author of Love and Other Consolations “Propulsive and psychologically astute.” —Book Riot “Beautiful. I loved it!” —Lisa See, author of The Island of Sea Women “Scott deftly spins a web through modern day Tokyo in this captivating dual-perspective rendering of a young woman determined to find out the truth behind her mother’s murder.” —Newsweek “Scott is a gifted writer, capturing with precision the small details of everyday life and what they mean to the soul.” —Chris Bohjalian, author of Hour of the Witch “Fascinating. . . . Deeply researched . . . delicately described. . . . [Scott] braids her different characters’ timelines together with sophistication, her storytelling harmoniously well-constructed.” —The Guardian “At once luminous and captivating. . . . A brilliant, haunting book.” —Rene Denfeld, author of The Butterfly Girl “A gripping debut. . . . What’s Left of Me Is Yours is an outstanding novel that occupies the interstitial space between crime and literary fiction. . . . A must-read.” —Criminal Element  “With painterly care, Scott shows us a tempestuous side of Japan unfamiliar to most. . . . A virtuoso’s debut.” —Jing-Jing Lee, author of How We Disappeared “[A] passionate debut. . . . [Scott’s] take on the tabloid-inspired story is subtle, tender and humane.” —Shelf Awareness  “A gripping legal thriller that digs deep into the complications of human emotion.” —Lynn Kutsukake, author of The Translation of Love “Fascinating. . . . A meditation on intimacy and desire.” —Crime Reads “Mix[es] a tender, literary love story with a meticulously researched police procedural. . . . A simmering tale of passion and murder.” —Asian Review of Books “Intense. . . . Exhilarating. . . . Byzantine subplots, distinctive characters, and atmospheric settings will leave readers spellbound.” —Publishers Weekly “Scott delivers a delicately nuanced account of a complex tragedy rooted in the clash between illicit desire and the obligations of duty.” —Irish Times   “Gripping and instantly compelling. . . . A cleverly constructed, shrewd and beautiful novel with as much tension as heart.” —Bookreporter “An unusual and stylish story of love and murder.” —Kirkus Reviews “[Scott] clearly defines the unfortunate effects of the traditional Japanese legal system on women and with carefully accumulated details describes a Japan both physically and psychologically teetering on the edge of change.” —Booklist