BOY IN THE EARTH

A darkly melancholic tale that combines Scorseses Taxi Driver and Camuss The Fall set in Tokyo--Nakamuras Akutagawa Prize-winning novel, one of Japans most prestigious literary awards, is the here translated into English for the first time and marks another high-water mark in this important writers career. The Akutagawa Prize-Winning Novel As an unnamed Tokyo taxi driver works a night shift, picking up fares that offer him glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, he cant escape his own nihilistic thoughts. Almost without meaning to, he puts himself in harms way; he cant stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in obsessive fantasies that soon become terrifying blackout episodes. The truth is, his long-estranged father has tried to reach out to him, triggering a cascade of traumatic memories. As the cab driver wrestles with the truth about his past and the history of violence in his childhood, he must also confront his present, which is no less complicated or grim. A precursor to Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist The Thief , The Boy in the Earth is a closely told character study that poses a difficult question: Are some lives so damaged they are beyond redemption? Is every child worth trying to save? A poignant and thought-provoking tour de force by one of Japans leading literary voices.