Blood on the Tracks

Seiichi is a shy middle schooler whose mother Seiko seems doting, maybe a little too doting. On a family hike his cousin shoves him near a cliff as a joke. Later, at a higher ledge, Seiko walks up to that same cousin and pushes him off, then turns and gives her son a small, calm smile. The cousin survives but is left comatose, and Seiichi is the only witness. From there the book becomes a study of a child trapped inside a parent love, as Seiko possessiveness tightens and Seiichi loses the ground under his own life. Oshimi, who made Flowers of Evil, paces it slowly and makes the ordinary feel like a threat.