Evil And The Mask

(Paperback)

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Description

When Fumihiro Kuki is 11 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. 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. But as his education progresses, Fumihiro begins to question his father's mandate and starts to resist.

Reviews

Praise for Evil and the Mask

Karma runs thicker than blood inEvil and the Mask, the thought-provoking and unpredictable new novel by the Japanese zen-noir master Fuminori Nakamura.
Wall Street Journal

Evil and the Maskis a brilliant novel from one of Japans most current authors . . . If you love Patricia Highsmith, youll love Nakamura.
Globe and Mail

Evil and the Maskis a hard-to-put-down novel of ideas and a savage comment on nihilism, both Japanese and global . . . Shouldn't be missed.
Booklist, Starred Review

A twisted tale of revenge . . . mixing noir and the existential question of free will.
The Japan Times

Deliciously twisted . . . Nakamura bend[s] the line between what is good and what is evil until it nearly breaks. Its impressive how a book so dark can be so much fun.
Grantland

[Evil and the Maskis] full of themes that everyone can appreciate . . . Nakamura blurs the line between light and dark, good and evil. He illustrates that nothing in life is completely black and white.
Tulsa Books Examiner

Evil and the Maskis concerned with a twisty sense of morality: is Fumihiro born evil, and can he escape the cruelty associated with his surname
Omnivoracious

Deals with basic questions of good and evil, guilt and remorse. Cryptic detectives, smoky nightclubs, and murky streets in Japanese suburbs add to the noir sensibility. At times bizarre, at times hallucinatory, the story is always provocative.
Publishers Weekly

This literary thriller steeps the reader in humanitys dark nature and the struggle of those who try to resist their own moral corruption.
Library Journal

Evil and the Maskis an engrossing account . . . The story is violent, revengeful, and often disagreeable but it still contains that hypnotic voice that makes you want to read more.
Midwest Book Review

Evil and the Mask, the second book of his to be available in English, is undoubtedly the narrative that will help cement him as the new master of Japanese noir . . . an absolute must-read.
Out of the Gutter Magazine

Author Bio

Fuminori Nakamura was born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. In 2002, he won the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for New Writers for his first novel, A Gun, and in 2005 he won the Akutagawa prize for The Boy in the Earth. The Thief, winner of the 2010 Oe Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary award, is also published in English by Soho Press.