If you knew you didn''t have long to live, who would you tell? What would you say? And how would you deliver the message? The Keeper of the Camphor Tree starts with Reito Naoi, a man in his early 20s, being unjustly fired from his job. Enraged and fuelled by feelings of revenge, he tries to steal a valuable device from his workplace, but things don''t go to plan, and he ends up arrested. In jail, Reito is paid an unexpected visit by a lawyer who offers to arrange for his release, if he complies with the wishes of the lawyer''s client. Seeing no alternative, Reito accepts and soon discovers that the lawyer''s client is his aunt. When Reito tells her that he has no plans for the future, she gives him an order: ''What I want you to do is to guard a camphor tree.'' And thus begins Reito''s custodianship of a camphor tree standing on the grounds of a shine - a camphor tree with a mysterious legend associated with it...

Autorentext

Keigo Higashino

Klappentext

Imagine an ancient tree by a famous shrine, so powerful that visitors come from far and wide to commune with it by moonlight ...

When a run of bad luck lands Reito in prison and he is about to be sentenced, a distant aunt he has never met offers him a surprising way out: he must become the next keeper of the camphor tree.

In his strange 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 to the tree for hours; and his glamorous daughter, who has been secretly following him. Then there is the rich, disaffected young man who seems to come grudgingly, with no faith that the tree will even help.

What is the secret of the camphor tree? Can its power be more than just a myth?

Reito begs his aunt Chifune to explain, but she assures him that when he is ready for them, the answers will come to him ...