Slow Boat

(Paperback)

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A startling novella from the heir to Haruki Murakami and Gabriel Garcia Marquez'I've never made it out of Tokyo. I can't tell you how many times I've asked myself if the boundary is real. Of course it's real. And if you think I'm lying, you can come and see for yourself.'Trapped in Tokyo, left behind by a series of girlfriends, the narrator of Slow Boat sizes up his situation. His missteps, his violent rebellions, his tiny victories. But he is not a passive loser, content to accept all that fate hands him. He attempts one last escape to the edges of the city, holding the only safety net he has known - his dreams.Filled with lyrical longing and humour, Slow Boat captures perfectly the urge to get away and the necessity of finding yourself in a world which might never even be looking for you.Hideo Furukawa, born in 1966, is an acclaimed and prize-winning writer, hailed by many in Japan's literary world as a prodigy worthy of inheriting the mantle of Haruki Murakami. He was awarded the Mishima Prize in 2006 for Love. His best-known novel is the 2008 Holy Family, an epic work of alternate history set in north-eastern Japan, where he was born.

Reviews

'Translator David Boyd brings the slight and endearing story into riffing, confessional English' - Wall Street Journal

'The story is elegant and compressed, an investigation into memory, its faults and the arbitrary markers that we set down to locate ourselves, and to form our perspective on the present' - TLS

'In this refreshing book, Furukawa proves to be an imaginative and captivating storyteller' - Publishers Weekly

'The prose in this short novel fizzes... language is used in startling and unique ways. Even the puns work in translation' - Japan Times

'Not only readable but very enjoyable... bound to leave you engrossed in self-questioning' - The Japan Society

Author Bio

Hideo Furukawa was born in 1966 in Fukushima, and is highly regarded for the richness of his storytelling and his willingness to experiment; he changes his style with every new book. His best-known novel is the 2008 Holy Family, an epic work of alternate history set in northeastern Japan. He has received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, the Japan SF Grand Prize and the Yukio Mishima award.