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Out
Natsuo Kirino
Translated by Stephen Snyder
Hardcover 368 pages
152 x 226mm 820g
ISBN : 978-4-7700-2905-8 / 4-7700-2905-5
Publish : Aug, 2003
Price : $22.95 |
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[ About the Book ]
FIRST JAPANESE AUTHOR NOMINATED FOR the 2004 EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD.
Natsuo Kirino was nominated for her thriller Out, the first of her 40 books to appear in English.
Nothing in the sometimes hazy history of Japanese literature prepares us for the stark, tension-filled, plot-driven realism of Natsuo Kirino's award-winning mystery Out, a work that took the Japanese literary scene by storm and continues to haunt the popular consciousness as a recently released major motion picture.
Kirino's novel tells a story of random violence in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works a night shift making boxed lunches brutally strangles her deadbeat husband and then seeks the help of her co-workers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime.
The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Outand as one of the shrewdest, most clear-eyed creations in recent fiction. Masako's own search for a way Out of the straitjacket of a dead-end life leads her, too, to take drastic action.
The complex yet riveting narrative seamlessly combines a convincing glimpse into the grimy world of Japan's yakuza with a brilliant portrayal of the psychology of a violent crime and the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse between seasoned detectives and a group of determined but inexperienced criminals. Kirino has mastered a Thelma and Louise kind of graveyard humor that illuminates her stunning evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds and the friendship that bolsters them in the aftermath.
Out shows its author to be Japan's finest mystery writer as well as one of the most astute observers of contemporary society, revealing, in the course of its gripping pages, the fears, hopes, and obsessions that drive a complex country.
THE SHOCKING THRILLER THAT WON JAPAN'S TOP MYSTERY AWARD!
Reviews
"A potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice."
—New York Times Book Review
"Kirino's tale is so dark, so gruesome and so depressing, it left this reader reeling. No gritty urban American tale of violence can match the horror of >Out."
—USA Today
"The scarily omniscient Kirino knows not only everybody's business but everybody's mind—her way with interior monologue is pungent and prismatic..."
—The Village Voice
"Out remains a daring account of empowered Japanese women, and just too damn macabre to discount."
—Flaunt
"Out offers an intriguing look at the darker sides of Japanese society while smashing stereotypes about Japanese women."
—Washington Post Book World
"Daring and disturbing, Out is prepared to push the limits of this world—not only in violence and sex but also in human outlook."
—The Los Angeles Times
"Out probes the more sordid corners of the criminal psyche."
—The Houston Chronicle
"A knuckle-clenching thriller."
—Entertainment Weekly
"Out turns the whole subservient geisha image on its head."
—JANE
"Kirino, as is the case of the best mystery writers, combines a strong plot with a canny description of contemporary Japanese mores and culture to make this an unforgettable work... this is a novel that will be shared, and discussed, for some time to come."
—Bookrerorter.com
"Sensational."
—Time Out New York
"In Snyder's smoothly unobtrusive translation, all of Kirino's characters are touching and believable....the gritty realism of everyday existence in the underbelly of Japan's consumer society comes across with pungent force."
—Publishers Weekly
"With volcanic urgency, Kirino's story erupts onto the page with a searing heat, flowing like lava to a remarkable finish... It's rare when a novel is so well rendered, so reaching in scope, and so thematically relevant that is transcends its type and demands a wider reading. Out does that and more."
—Barnes & Noble's Discover New Writers, Fall 2003
"One of the year's most impactful works of mystery."
—Borders.com
"Out descends beneath the genre's foundation to provide a remarkable series of insights into the forces that drive the charnel house of a postindustrial culture."
—American Book Review
"...a captivating portrayal of what an individual will do to find a reason for living...."
—Fore Word
"Out is interesting for the way it invites questions of gender's relationship to violence."
—Bitch
"[Out] brings the mystery thriller to new levels of intensity and realism, drawing readers into a nightmare of murder, suspicion, and fear.... [It] has great plot twists, intensity, and an ending that would make Hannibal Lecter smile."
—Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Dark, seductive and occasionally brutal, Out explores the lower classes of Japanese society with a distinctive gallows humor."
—Book
"....the most exciting crime novel of the year...the novel is darker, grittier, and more disquieting than nearly anything that's come along in recent years on either side of the Pacific Rim."
—Orange
"A gutsy, unflinching foray into the darkest, most dangerous recesses of the human soul. And the book's riveting, hair-raising final scenes, although definitely not for the faint-at-heart, serve as an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom has the potential to set any ordinary individual among us off down a very dark and lonely road."
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"An entrancing, perverse tale of murder."
—The National Post (Toronto)
"Dramatic as the plot is, it's the penetration of Kirino's insight into her characters and their capacity to keep surprising each other that linger longest in this grimly satisfying tale. Crime and Punishment meets A Simple Plan—yet in the end Kirino manages her banal heroines' descent into hell like no one you've ever read before."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Kirino doesn't rush the complex plot; she takes time to develop her characters and set up the crisis, with fantasies and realities about to collide."
—Toronto Globe & Mail
"One of the most popular authors in Japan-known as 'the reigning queen of crime fiction.'"
—International Herald Tribune
"Finally, a masterpiece in this genre... Whereas the lead characters in most crime fiction are outlaws, here is a novel that realistically shows how ordinary people can be drawn into committing brutal crimes."
—Prize jury, Mystery Writers of Japan
"Out will remain in the memory of readers as The pick of the crop of Japanese mysteries. There is terrific energy in it, from start to finish."
—Mainichi Shimbun
"There are few authors who are willing to probe deep into the innards of modern society and write about what they find there. This novel is proof that Ms. Kirino is one of them."
—Hokkaido Shimbun
"Intricately constructed, like the assembly of a mosaic, stone by stone. Even the minor characters—a loan shark, a Brazilian Japanese—are vivid and memorable."
—Asahi Shimbun
"Stark realism, lit up by flashes of unexpected humor and psychological insight."
—Nihon Keizai Shimbun
"Ingenious."
—Shukan Asahi
About the author
NATSUO KIRINO, born in 1951, quickly established a reputation in her own country as one of a rare breed of mystery writer whose work goes well beyond the conventional crime novel. This fact has been demonstrated by her winning not only Japan's top mystery award-for Out in 1998-but one of its major literary awards-the Naoki Prize in 1999, for Soft Cheeks. Several of her books have also been turned into full-scale movies.The hugely successful Out is the first of her novels to appear in English.
STEPHEN SNYDER, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is known for his excellent translations of contemporary Japanese fiction: among them, Ryu Murakami's Coin Locker Babies and Miri Yu's Gold Rush.
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