Synopsis
“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.
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About the Author
Ryu Murakami was born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture, Ryu Murakamiis the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for his first book, a novel about a group of young people drowned in sex and drugs, he has gone on to explore with cinematic intensity the themes of violence and technology in contemporary Japanese society. His novels include Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, Audition, In the Miso Soup and From the Fatherland, with Love. Murakami is also a screenwriter and a director; his films include Tokyo Decadence, Audition and Because of You.
Ralph McCarthy is a noted translator, whose translations include Ryu Murakami’s Audition, In the Miso Soup, Piercing, Sixty-Nine, and From The Fatherland, With Love.
Reviews
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.)
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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
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ISBN 10: 014303863X
ISBN 13: 9780143038634
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Mr. Murakamis novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths.The New York TimesA 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 babys 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 thrillerterrifying, sickening, and utterly gripping. A pulsating psycho-thriller from Ryu Murakami, author of "In the Miso Soup" A renaissance man for the postmodern age, Ryu Murakamia musician, filmmaker ("Tokyo Decadence"), TV personality, and award-winning authorhas gained a cult following in the West. His first novel, "Almost Transparent Blue," won Japans most coveted literary prize and sold over a million copies, and his most recent psychosexual thriller, "In the Miso Soup," gave readers a further taste of his incredibly agile imagination. In "Piercing," Murakami, in his own unique style, explores themes of child abuse and what happens to the voiceless among us, weaving a disturbing, spare tale of two people who find each other and then are forced into hurting each other deeply because of the haunting specter of their own abuse as children. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780143038634
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Piercing
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Paperback. Condition: New. "Mr. Murakami's novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths." -- The New York TimesA 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. Seller Inventory # LU-9780143038634