As much as Ryusei asks her out, he cannot convince Miwako to date him.

The first part of the novel is told through the first person perspective of Ryusei, a tall, attractive student who falls in love with the reserved and plain Miwako. Miwako and her friends are mostly second year students at Waseda University. Goenawan captures a time-1990-when Japanese young adults have few cares apart from studying and forging friendships before separating into closely defined gender roles of salarymen and office ladies. Set mainly in Tokyo, Indonesian-born Clarissa Goenawan’s second novel, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, is a haunting story of friendship in young adulthood and how-even before social media-people are not often as they appear. Kay has the more challenging role, attempting to distinguish Chie and Fumi (her distinctions are too subtle), adding in Miwako whose characterization will require unexpected vocal adjustments.ĭespite occasional stumbles, Goenawan’s intriguing plot twists should keep listeners engaged until the tragic whydunnit.University student Miwako Sumida has committed suicide and her small group of friends are caught completely off guard, yet determined to search for answers behind her death. With the narration divided by gender – David Shih as Ryu, Cindy Kay as both Chie and Fumi – Shih’s performance proves convincingly stronger, his verging-on-growly voice ideal for Ryu, deepening as his adoration grows, harsher as his anguish overwhelms. Desperate to comprehend her fatal choices, Miwako’s would-be boyfriend Ryusei (his love unrequited) and her high school best friend Chie attempt to retrace Miwako’s journey to a mountainside clinic where she was volunteering shortly before she died. Ryusei’s older sister Fumi – a painter moonlighting as a bar hostess – who Miwako briefly assisted, knows the dead girl least, and yet will be the one to whom the full truth is revealed.

This time, death arrives via suicide, claiming the titular Miwako, an enigmatic university sophomore who disappears without notice, and is found only after death. Indonesian-born, Singaporean-domiciled Clarissa Goenawan ( Rainbirds) takes her sophomore title back to a death in remote Japan.

The perfect world of miwako sumida