Psychologically intricate and astute, dark and unflinchingly, Real World is a searing, eye-opening portrait of teenage life in Japan unlike any we have seen before.
Natsuo Kirino, born in 1951, is the author of sixteen novels, four short-story collections, and an essay collection. She is the recipient of six of Japan's premier literary awards, including the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Out, and the Izumi Kyoka Prize for Literature for Grotesque. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages, and several of her books have been turned into movies. Out was the first of her novels to appear in English and was nominated for an Edgar Award. She lives in Tokyo.
"Kirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer" Publishers Weekly "Kirino creates a fictional universe in which the normal rules of engagement no longer apply...she chronicles the toxic fall out of an educational system that fosters conformity above individualism" -- Emma Hagestadt Independent "Japanese crime queen ... a tense, worried book of actions and consequences" Guardian "She may be the best crime writer to emerge from Japan in years" Independent on Sunday "The translation is smooth and invisible... Compelling" www.eurocrime.co.uk
Between the groans of a smog alert siren at the outset of this gripping noir from Kirino (Out), Tokyo high school student Toshi Yamanaka hears what sounds like glass shattering next door. Might a burglar be at work? Later, after learning that a female neighbor has been bludgeoned to death, Toshi suspects that she was an earwitness to the woman's murder and that the killer was the victim's son, a mysterious boy Toshi's age, nicknamed Worm by Toshi and her friends. When Worm vanishes, Toshi, who also suspects he stole her cellphone, finds herself hoping that he'll reach out to her, for reasons she doesn't fully understand. Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Kirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer. Some readers, though, may find the proceedings just too grim for their taste. (July) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Toshi, a high school girl at home during summer vacation, is surprised late one morning by the sound of crashing glass coming from her neighbors' house. From that point on, her life and that of her three friends will change completely as they become entangled with the neighbors' son, nicknamed "Worm." Focusing on the lives of these five characters, Kirino unflinchingly describes the contemporary social conditions of teenagers from their point of view; unlike Battle Royale, that now infamous look at violent school children, this work more honestly depicts the blatant as well as subtle acts of violence done by and to teenagers in modern Japan. Kirino's work has been awarded numerous prestigious awards, including the Edogawa Rampo Prize for best mystery in 1993 and the Naoki Prize for Soft Cheeks in 1999; this is his third book to appear in English, after Grotesque and Out. Gabriel, who recently translated Murakami Haruki's Kafka on the Shore to critical acclaim, has a difficult job translating the slang of high school students but mostly hits the right notes. Highly recommended.--Andrew Weiss, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
"Kirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer" Publishers Weekly "Kirino creates a fictional universe in which the normal rules of engagement no longer apply...she chronicles the toxic fall out of an educational system that fosters conformity above individualism" -- Emma Hagestadt Independent "Japanese crime queen ... a tense, worried book of actions and consequences" Guardian "She may be the best crime writer to emerge from Japan in years" Independent on Sunday "The translation is smooth and invisible... Compelling" www.eurocrime.co.uk
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