Outskirts Press, INC.

The Bullying Novel For Today's World.

“Absorbing and harrowing, capturing the more ominous aspects of the society it describes. The reader is immersed in the situation from the outset and kept there till the end. Powerfully realized and tellingly paced.” Ciaran Murray, The Secret Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Seven juvenile offenders on leave from various reform schools are doing a 1,300-kilometer temple pilgrimage on foot with a counselor and some assigned wardens from the state. Upon completing the pilgrimage, they will be released. Will they rejoin society or leave it for good?

Murakami smiled. No one had said a word in favor of his plan for nearly an hour. Every official who had anything to do with the incarceration of the seven juveniles had gone on record as being against the scheme from the beginning. But they were going to let him take the seven on the pilgrimage to Shikoku – that was clear. After the board had had their say, the tide would change from indignant opposition to a begrudging, faintly paternalistic setting of conditions. Then Murakami would have his chance to speak.