Description
"...short, tense and brutally eloquent" -- Publishers Weekly "The latest postcard from the edge by noir-ish Japanese novelist and filmmaker Murakami." -- Kirkus Reviews “Piercingxa0is a Japanese extension of (David) Lynch’s world." -- Chris Petit, Guardian "I read the whole bookxa0with my shoulders pressing into my ears, if that tells you anything." -- Emily Temple, LitHubxa0 *10 Works of Literary Horror You Should Read(Even if You Don't Think You Like Horror* "Equally compelling and disturbing ... Piercing is an even darker psycho-thriller" -- Daily Mail (London) "If Ryu Murakami's short novel were a film it would be a nasty but effective B-movie chiller ... Written in a faintly ironic style reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis, Piercing is queasily compulsive ... the plot delivers its shocks efficiently." --xa0Financial Times " There are echoes here of Edgar Allan Poe and Dostoevsky - Murakami shares their fascination with the darkest layer of the soul, and the appalling isolation of the criminal. Creepy and gripping." --xa0The Times (London) From Publishers Weekly In this short, tense and brutally eloquent thriller from Japanese author Murakami ( In the Miso Soup ), Kawashima Masayuki, a young urban professional, faces the terrible fear he will stab his baby daughter, Rie, just as he once stabbed the stripper he lived with when he was 19. He decides killing a young prostitute will alleviate the building pressure inside him and protect both Rie and his sweet wife, Yoko. He plans everything meticulously, but what he doesn't bargain for is that his intended victim, Sanada Chiaki, an s&m worker, is as disturbed as he is. During their appointment, Chiaki experiences a "Nightmare" episode that results in a twisted game of cat-and-mouse. Murakami doesn't waste a word or a movement in this near-haiku of a tale that's breathless with anxiety and fraught with pain. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the hardcover edition. 'Equally compelling and disturbing ... a dark psycho-thriller' Daily Mail 'Piercing is a Japanese extension of David Lynch's world: surreal, sexually anguished, highly neurotic, both knowing and naive' Guardian 'Each time a new book by Ryu Murakami is published, the people at the Japanese Tourist Board must hang their heads in despair ... darkly witty' Daily Telegraph 'There are echoes here of Edgar Allan Poe and Dostoyevsky - Murakami shares their fascination with the darkest layer of the soul, and the appalling isolation of the criminal. Creepy and gripping' Kate Saunders, The Times --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Ryu Murakami, musician, filmmaker, TV talk show host, and novelist, is the author of Almost Transparent Blue , 69 , and Coin Locker Babies , which the Washington Post praised as "a knockout . . . a great big pulsating parable." --This text refers to the hardcover edition. From Booklist Kawashima survived a hideously abusive childhood and, as isn't unusual in such cases, bears the scars. Voices in his head, accompanied by garish images, urge him to re-create his stabbing, when a teenager, of the stripper who was his brutal mother. Because "only voices and images from the external world could neutralize those from inside," Kawashima's greatest fear is not of death but of blindness and deafness. When fantasies of stabbing his infant daughter as she sleeps in her crib start to dominate his consciousness, he lies to his unsuspecting wife, takes a hotel room, and meticulously plots to murder an S&M prostitute--who is petite, so he can more easily overcome her. Certainly not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, Piercing blends a cold-blooded true-crime ambience and unexpected, almost antic humor as best-laid plans go horribly awry when an equally scarred (she's a compulsive cutter) abuse survivor turned S&M prostitute enters the action. Oddly and thoroughly compelling as well as chilling, and neither black comedy nor horror, this is a strangely entertaining novel. Whitney Scott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Read more
Features & Highlights
- "Mr. Murakami’s novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths." --
- The New York Times
- A pulsating cult-favorite psycho-thriller, the basis of the major motion picture starring Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska
- *One of
- Literary Hub
- 's "Ten Works of Literary Horror You Should Read (Even if You Don't Think You Like Horror)"*
- Kawashima Masayuki is a successful graphic designer living in Tokyo with his loving wife, Yoko, and their baby girl. Outwardly, their lives are a picture of happiness and contentment, but every night while his wife sleeps Kawashima creeds from him bed and watches over the baby’s crib with an ice pick in his hand and an almost visceral desire to use it. One night, as this struggle unfolds once more, Kawashima makes a decision to confront his demons and sets into motion an uncontrollable chain of events seeming to lead inexorably to murder. The follow-up to
- In the Miso Soup
- from a cult favorite writer,
- Piercing
- confirms Murakami as the master of the psycho thriller—terrifying, sickening, and utterly gripping
