Lonely Hearts Killer

(Paperback)

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The first English translation of a full-length novel by award-winning Japanese author Tomoyuki Hoshino. What happens when a popular and young emperor suddenly dies, and the only person available to succeed him is his sister How can people in an island country survive as climate change and martial law is eroding more and more opportunities for local sustainability and mutual aid These and other provocative questions provide the backdrop for this powerful novel about young adults caught up in the fast-paced life of modern Japan.

Reviews

"A major novel by Tomoyuki Hoshino, one of the most compelling and challenging writers in Japan today, Lonely Hearts Killer deftly weaves a path between geopolitical events and individual experience, forcing a personal confrontation with the political brutality of the postmodern era. Adrienne Hurley's brilliant translation captures the nuance and wit of Hoshino's exploration of depths that rise to the surface in the violent acts of contemporary youth."
--Thomas LaMarre, William Dawson Professor of East Asian Studies, McGill University

"Since his debut, Hoshino has used as the core of his writing a unique sense of the unreality of things, allowing him to illuminate otherwise hidden realities within Japanese society. And as he continues to write from this tricky position, it goes without saying that he produces work upon work of extraordinary beauty and power."
--Yuko Tsushima, Award-winning Japanese Novelist

"Reading Hoshino's novels is like traveling to a strange land all by yourself. You touch down on an airfield in a foreign country, get your passport stamped, and leave the airport all nerves and anticipation. The area around an airport is more or less the same in any country. It is sterile and without character. There, you have no real sense of having come somewhere new. But then you take a deep breath and a smell you've never encountered enters your nose, a wind you've never felt brushes against your skin, and an unknown substance rains down upon your head."
--Mitsuyo Kakuta, Award-winning Japanese Novelist

Author Bio

Tomoyuki Hoshino made his literary debut in Japan in 1997 and is the author of 12 novels, including Fantasista, which won the Noma Bungei award in 2003, and The Mermaid Sings Wake Up, which won the Mishima Prize in 2000. He is also known in Japan for his nonfiction essays on art, politics, social issues, and sports--particularly soccer.