Higashino, Keigo: The Keeper of the Camphor Tree

Imagine an ancient tree by a famous shrine, so powerful that visitors flock to it from far and wide. A tree so powerful that people spend hours communing with it by new moon and full moon. Reito doesn‘t really believe in stuff like this, but when a run of bad luck lands him in prison, about to be sentenced, a distant aunt he has never met offers him a way out: he must become the next keeper of the camphor tree. In his new job, Reito welcomes the people coming by nightfall to commune with the tree, all of whom are lost and all in need of something. There is the stern, middle-aged man who hums strangely to the tree for hours; and his glamorous daughter, who has been secretly following him, convinced he is betraying their family with another woman. Then there is the rich, disaffected young man who seems to come grudgingly, with no faith that the tree will even help. What do these people expect to get from the tree? Can its power be more than just a myth? And what does communing even really mean ? Reito begs his aunt Chifune to explain, but she assures him that when he is ready for them, the answers will come to him ...