Fuminori Nakamura

Instantly reminiscent of the work of Osamu Dazai and Patricia Highsmith, Fuminori Nakamura s latest novel is a dark and twisting house of mirrors that philosophically explores the violence of aesthetics and the horrors of identity.A young writer arrives at a prison to interview a convict. The writer has been commissioned to write a full account of the case, from the bizarre and grisly details of the crime to the nature of the man behind it. The suspect, a world-renowned photographer named Kiharazaka, has a deeply unsettling portfolio lurking beneath the surface of each photograph is an acutely obsessive fascination with his subject. He stands accused of murdering two women both burned alive and will likely face the death penalty. But something isn t quite right. As the young writer probes further, his doubts about this man as a killer intensify, and he struggles to maintain his sense of reason and justice. Is Kiharazaka truly guilty, or will he die to protect someone else? Evoking Truman Capote s "In Cold Blood" and Ry nosuke Akutagawa s Hell Screen, "Last Winter, We Parted" is a twisted talea that asks a deceptively sinister question: Is it possible to truly capture the essence of another human being?

In Tokyo a college student’s discovery and eventual obsession with a stolen handgun awakens something dark inside him and threatens to consume not only his life but also his humanity. Nakamura’s Japanese debut is a noir-spun tale that probes the violence inherent to aesthetics. On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From the moment Nishikawa decides to take the gun, the world around him blurs. Knowing he possesses the weapon brings an intoxicating sense of purpose to his dull university life. But soon Nishikawa’s personal entanglements become unexpectedly complicated: he finds himself romantically involved with two women while his biological father, whom he’s never met, lies dying in a hospital. Through it all, he can’t stop thinking about the gun—and the four bullets loaded in its chamber. As he spirals into obsession, his focus is consumed by one idea: that possessing the gun is no longer enough—he must fire it. From the Hardcover edition.

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn't even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections ... but he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can't refuse. It's an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.

Zen-Noir master Nakamura returns to the Tokyo of The Thief, where a young grifter named Yurika finds herself in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the shadowy crime lord Kizaki. Yurika is a freelancer in the Tokyo underworld. She poses as a prostitute, carefully targeting potential johns, selecting powerful and high-profile men. When she is alone with them, she drugs them and takes incriminating photos to sell for blackmail purposes. She knows very little about the organization she's working for, and is perfectly satisfied with the arrangement, as long as it means she doesn't have to reveal anything about her identity, either. She operates alone and lives a private, solitary life, doing her best to lock away painful memories. But when a figure from Yurika's past resurfaces, she realizes there is someone out there who knows all her secrets: her losses, her motivations, her every move. There are whispers of a crime lord named Kizaki--"a monster," she is told--and Yurika finds herself trapped in a game of cat and mouse. Is she wily enough to escape one of the most sadistic men in Tokyo? From the Hardcover edition.

What transforms a person into a killer? Can it be something as small as a suggestion?Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life.With My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime.Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, My Annihilation interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

CULT X: A NOVEL

La última novela del más prometedor de los jóvenes escritores japoneses. Nakamura explora los rincones más oscuros del ser humano con una escritura íntima y sutil. Una novela que aborda temas tan delicados como el suicidio y controvertidos como el crimen y la pena de muerte.Un joven que trabaja como vigilante en una prision, lleva una existencia mediocre y apatica. Marcado por el abandono de sus padres y por un intento de suicidio, desde niño ha estado obsesionado por un sueño en el que sostiene en brazos a una mujer muerta. A medida que se relaciona con los convictos comienza a cuestionarse su propio destino.¿Podria haber sido el mismo uno de ellos?¿Cuales son los motivos que conducen al crimen? ¿Habita en su interior un asesino? Con la llegada a la prision de Yamai, un joven de 18 años condenado a muerte por asesinato, su mundo interior se desmorona. Sin embargo, solo a traves de Yamai encontrara la redencion y se reconciliara con sus demonios.

THE BOY IN THE EARTH

Dos mujeres casi idénticas. Dos detectives completamente opuestos. Una investigación por el asesinato de un maestro del kinbaku, una forma de atadura con cuerdas que encierra una compleja historia cultural de espiritualidad, tortura, pureza y sacrificio, revelara los rincones mas oscuros de la mente humana en este escalofriante misterio del maestro del noir literario japones.

When Toru Narazaki's girlfriend, Ryoko Tachibana, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of the private detective hes hired to find her. Ryoko's past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue to her whereabouts is a previous address in the heart of Tokyo. She lived in a compound with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru with a revisionist Buddhist scheme of life, death, and society. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru's brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn't what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence he is stepping into. Inspired by the 1995 sarin gas terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway, Cult X is an exploration of what draws individuals into extremism. It is a tour de force that captures the connections between astrophysics, neuroscience, and religion; an invective against predatory corporate consumerism and exploitative geopolitics; and a love story about compassion in the face of nihilism.

Un carterista japonés a merced del destino. ¿Crees en el destino?... El ladrón es un carterista experto. Sus víctimas solo son para él extraños, rostros sin nombre a los que robar. No tiene familia,