'As Rio moves deeper into the painful secrets of the past, secrets that nearly destroyed her in childhood and are threatening to undo her once again, I could not stop turning the pages of Kelly Luce's hypnotic debut. From its first sentence, Pull Me Under grabs the reader and doesn't let go.' -Sarah Bird, author of Above the East China Sea Noodle shops, summer festivals, ancient temples, and the lush landscape of rural Shikoku burst to life in these pages. 'Kelly Luce's unforgettable debut is an elegant mystery, a tender story of family and forgiveness, an unsettling depiction of the darkness we each carry inside, and a hymn to Japan. She's unique, a natural born writer, and Pull Me Under is a strange and very appealing novel, a journey to Japan and the primal scene of the main character's self-which, like a volcano, may have already blown its top.' -Rachel Kushner 'The writing of Kelly Luce is beautifully stark and simple, and at the same time playful, earthy, and violent. There she is forced to confront her past in ways she never imagined, pushing herself, her relationships with her husband and daughter, and her own sense of who she is to the brink. Her father's death, along with a mysterious package that arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, spurs her to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years. Rio, born Chizuru Akitani, is the Japanese American daughter of the revered violinist Hiro Akitani-a Living National Treasure in Japan and a man Rio hasn't spoken to since she left her home country for the United States (and a new identity) after her violent crime. Luce tells the story of Rio Silvestri, who, when she was twelve years old, fatally stabbed a school bully. Kelly Luce's Pull Me Under is a suspense novel with a female protagonist that gets more right about women than so many others I've read in the past few years (NPR).

A Searing Debut Novel from One of the Most Imaginative Minds in Fiction

Pull me under by kelly luce