Evil and the Mask by Fuminori Nakamura

(hb; 2010, 2013. Translation from Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates.)

From the inside flap:

"When Fumihiro Kuki is eleven years old, his elderly, enigmatic father calls him into his study for a meeting. "I created you to be a cancer on the world," his father tells him. It is a tradition in their wealthy family: a patriarch, when reaching the end of his life, will beget one last child to cause misery in a world that cannot be controlled or saved. From this point on, Fumihiro will be specially educated to learn to create as much destruction and unhappiness in the world around him as a single person can. Between his education in hedonism and his family's resources, Fumihiro's life is one without repercussions. Every door is open to him, for he need obey no laws and may live out any fantasy he might have, no matter how many people are hurt in the process. But as his education progresses, Fumihiro begins to question his father's mandate, and starts to resist."

Review:

Evil is a rare thing: it is a perfect novel that works on all levels – emotional, plotwise, character-wise and action-wise. I would not change one word of this original, disturbing and intense work, whose ties to real world history serve to imbue Evil with a resonance it might otherwise lack. This, of course, is worth owning, an entertaining, provocative and landmark neo-pulp book.

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

(hb; 2009, 2012. Translated from Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates)

From the inside flap:

"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."


Review:

Thief is an excellent, fast-paced and word-spare crime tale, told from the first-person point-of-view of the Thief, whose emotional journey from jaded loner pickpocket to reluctant protector of a boy is marked by occasional violence and the predations of Kizaki, a master criminal with a dangerous political agenda – an agenda that may result in the Thief’s death.

Thief, a pulp-to-its-core read, is worth owning. This is a thematic counterpart work to  The Kingdom.