What's Left of Me is Yours

Within the Tokyo underworld there is an industry which exists to break up marriages. But when Kaitaro Nakamura is hired to seduce Rina, something unexpected happens - he falls in love. A subtle heartfelt novel from a fresh new talent.

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A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE DAILY MAIL AND WOMAN AND HOME
A New York Times 'Editor's Pick'
One of the Observer's Ten Best Debut Novelists of 2020
Shortlisted for the Author's Club First Novel Award
Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize
Longlisted for the CWA John Creasy New Blood Dagger

'Enrapturing... This richly imagined novel considers the many permutations of love and what we are capable of doing in its name' New York Times

'A brilliant debut' Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree Yard

'You'll have the heart rate of an Olympic hurdler' Sunday Express

'I read it with my heart in my throat' Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton

'An exquisitely crafted masterpiece you'll be pressing into the hands of others' Woman & Home

'An intoxicatingly atmospheric mystery' Daily Mail

'Dark, addictive and eye-opening, this is a brilliant debut' Stylist


A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, What's Left of Me Is Yours follows 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 Sato hires Kaitaro, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Sato has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitaro'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 Kaitaro fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter Sumiko's life.

Told from alternating points of view and across the breathtaking landscapes of Japan, What's Left of Me Is Yours explores 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.