Sympathy Tower Tokyo: A Novel

“Provocative…Masterfully subtle.” —The New York Times

“An architectural feat in itself.” —Financial Times

The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon: a speculative, prophetic novel following a young and brilliant celebrity architect in Tokyo who takes on her most controversial project yet—perfect for readers of Klara and the Sun and Chain-Gang All-Stars.

Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of radical sympathy toward criminals has become normalized. The incarcerated are considered victims influenced by their environments to commit crime and are labeled accordingly as Homo miserabilis.

A grand, yet controversial, skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house lawbreakers in compassionate comfort—Sympathy Tower Tokyo. Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city’s new centerpiece but is filled with doubt. Haunted by a terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might inherently disagree with the values of the project, which should be the pinnacle of her career. As Sara grapples with these conflicting emotions, her relationship with her gorgeous—and much younger—boyfriend grows increasingly strained. In search of solace and in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot…

The recipient of Japan’s highest literary prize, Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an extraordinary novel from one of the most exciting new global voices. Partly inspired by conversations with an artificial intelligence, it offers an urgent and brilliant defense of the power of language written by humans, a moving exploration of the imaginative impulse, and an often hilarious send-up of our modern world’s unrelenting conformity.

Rie Qudan was born in Saitama, Japan. Her third novel, Sympathy Tower Tokyo was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prestigious literary award. She lives in Japan.

Jesse Kirkwood was awarded the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize in 2020 and has translated the bestselling Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto, A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama, The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, and Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan. He lives in the United Kingdom.