Chizuru Akitani is the daughter of the famous violinist & Japanese Living National Treasure Hiro Akitani. Overweight & hafu (her mother is white), she is relentlessly tormented at school. When her mother dies suddenly & the cruelty at school only intensifies, Chizuru snaps in a moment of blind rage & fatally stabs a classmate in the neck. After seven years of institutionalisation, Chizuru flees Japan for a new life in the United States. She renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries & has a daughter, determined to keep her past a secret. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep announcing the death of her father, she feels compelled to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years. Back in her homel&, long-kept secrets are suddenly unearthed & Rio`s dark past is thrust back into her life. Full of sensual descriptions of Japan, its culture, & its language, Pull Me Under is a fierce & suspenseful exploration of home, identity, & the limits of forgiveness.