One of Japan's great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus.
Kaoru Takamura was born in Osaka in 1953 and is the author of
thirteen novels. Her debut, Grab the Money and Run, won the 1990
Japan Mystery and Suspense Grand Prize, and since then her work has
been recognized with many of Japan's most prestigious awards for
literary fiction as well as for crime fiction- the Naoki Prize, the
Noma Literary Award, the Yomiuri Prize, the Shinran Prize, the Jiro
Osaragi Prize, the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and the Japan
Adventure Fiction Association Prize. Lady Joker, her first novel to
be translated into English, received the Mainichi Arts Award and
has been adapted into both a film and a television series.
Allison Markin Powellis a literary translator, editor, and
publishing consultant. She has been awarded grants from English PEN
and the NEA, and the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize forThe Ten
Loves of Nishinoby Hiromi Kawakami. Her other translations include
works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Fuminori Nakamura. She was
the guest editor for the first Japan issue ofWords Without Borders,
and she maintains the databaseJapanese Literature in English.
Marie Iidahas served as an interpreter for theNew York
Timesbestselling author Marie Kondo's Emmy-nominated Netflix
documentary series,Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.Her nonfiction
translations have appeared inNang,MoMA Post,Eurekaand over half a
dozen monographs on contemporary Japanese artists and architects,
including Yayoi Kusama, Toyo Ito, and Kenya Hara for Rizzoli New
York. Marie currently writes a monthly column forGentosha Plusabout
communicating in English as a native Japanese speaker.
TIME Magazine's 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time
An Amazon Best of the Month Pick for April 2021
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2021
CrimeReads Best Books of the Year (So Far)
Praise for Lady Joker
“Hinging on a kidnapping plot, Takamura’s prismatic heist novel
offers a broad indictment of capitalist society.”
—The New York Times
“[Lady Joker] is a work you get immersed in, like a sprawling 19th
century novel or a TV series like "The Wire." It reveals its world
in rich polyphonic detail. Inspired by a real-life case, it takes
us inside half a dozen main characters, follows scads of secondary
ones and enters bars and boardrooms we could never otherwise go . .
. Yet for all its digressions, Lady Joker casts a page-turning
spell.”
—John Powers, NPR's Fresh Air
“Like Ellroy’s American Tabloid and Carr’s The Alienist, the book
uses crime as a prism to examine dynamic periods of social history
. . . Takamura’s blistering indictment of capitalism, corporate
corruption and the alienation felt by characters on both sides of
the law from institutions they once believed would protect them
resonates surprisingly with American culture.”
—Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times
“Hallelujah! Inspired by the real-life, still unsolved
Glico-Morinaga kidnapping and extortion case that led to the
nationwide hunt for 'The Monster with Twenty-one Faces,' Kaoru
Takamura’s Lady Joker is at last available in translation; epic in
its scale and vision, yet gripping from first to last, this is one
of the great masterpieces of Japanese crime fiction and one of the
must-read books of this or any year.”
—David Peace, author of Tokyo Year Zero
“Let's make one thing absolutely clear, Kaoru Takamura's Lady
Joker is intimidating. First off, it's 576 pages big—that's
James Michener big, that's Gone with the Wind big, that's
James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet big . . . So, I'm glad to report that
the feeling of intimidation quickly wanes as Takamura proceeds to
weave her epic, post-World War II tale of crime and social
injustice . . . One which definitely rewards the effort.”
—Hank Wagner, Mystery Scene
“For those wanting a page-turning thriller in the vein
of Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four, there’s plenty of
police procedure, smoky backrooms, tense press conferences and
angry superiors slamming things on desks. But there is also social
commentary, history and a comprehensive account of how Japan’s
corporate, political and criminal worlds coexist in an uneasy,
toxic relationship. Like all great fiction, Lady
Joker informs and entertains.”
—The Japan Times
“It is well worth the wait for anyone interested in a panoramic
portrait of modern Japanese society, including its dark corners, as
well as fans of intelligent mysteries.”
—The Nikkei
“Mysterious and multilayered, [Lady Joker] gives readers extortion
and kidnapping as it critiques the dark corners of Japanese society
and the human experience.”
—Ms. Magazine
“A novel that portrays with devastating immensity how
those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the
darkness of their own hearts.”
—Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police
“A swarm of characters, an unorthodox structure, and slow-moving,
ultimately irresistible suspense distinguish Lady Joker . .
. Like some novels by James Ellroy and Marlon James, Lady
Joker is wildly ambitious in scope.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“An immense and extraordinary feat of writing and translation that
has been long-awaited in English, Lady Joker is at once a thriller
and a sweeping cultural history of Japan, a love story and a work
of poignant social commentary.”
—BookRiot
“Lady Joker reads like Don DeLillo’s Underworld rewritten by James
Ellroy, or perhaps LA Confidential rewritten by Don DeLillo? What
I’m trying to say here is, Lady Joker is EPIC.”
—CrimeReads
“Impressive, very large-scale crime(-and-more) novel of post-war
Japan . . . Lady Joker is anything but your usual mystery.”
—The Complete Review
“Through the working class, and executives, the police force and
media, author Kaoru Takamura brings to her readers a Japan which is
complicated and often corrupt. The disenfranchised working class
who commit a crime seem no better (or worse) than the corporate
executives who commit crimes in their own, more subtle, ways.”
—Dolce Belleza
“Excellent . . . Takamura shows why she’s one of Japan’s most
prominent mystery novelists.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Takamura’s challenging, genre-confounding epic offers a sweeping
view of contemporary Japan in all its complexity.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Centered around an extortion case involving a beer company, Lady
Joker would ordinarily be categorized in the crime or mystery novel
genre, yet the book deserves to be called an exemplary literary
work that depicts contemporary society . . . A magnum opus . . . It
requires extraordinary skill to fully depict the ambivalence of
Japanese society, in all its detail. Reading Lady Joker together
with James Ellroy’s American Tabloid and the drama behind the
Kennedy assassination serves as an intriguing comparison. Viewing a
society through the lens of a crime is like examining a disease or
a corpse to get at the person: it exposes the foundations of human
existence.”
—Yomiuri Newspaper
“Using the relationship between individuals and institutions as its
axis, Lady Joker attempts to depict the contemporary era in its
entirety. The effort is so reckless as to be almost quixotic, but
with her formidable literary talents, Kaoru Takamura accomplishes
her goal to a handsome degree . . . Lady Joker is a multilayered
novel that allows for many interpretations, yet its structure
places it firmly within the framework of a social-awareness
mystery.”
—Shosetsu Subaru Literary Magazine
“A superb suspense novel with depth.”
—Shukan Bunshun (The Literary Weekly)
“Takamura’s eye for detail and storytelling prowess are astonishing
. . . It’s possible to read Lady Joker in various ways—as a mystery
novel, a police procedural, or a cautionary tale of corporate risk
management. I read it as an exploration of the original sin of
human existence . . . The depth of empathy readers will feel for
this book’s characters directly corresponds with the author’s
insight on the intersections of human existence.”
—Ushio Magazine
“An ambitious work of carefully plotted crime fiction with a deep
social conscience.”
—Crime Fiction Lover
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