Who is Mr Satoshi

(Paperback)

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Inventive and mysterious, WHO IS MR SATOSHI introduces a major new talent to contemporary fiction. On the day his mother dies reclusive photographer Rob Fossick - forty-one and already in the twilight of his career - finds among her belongings an unexplained package addressed to a 'Mr Satoshi'. So begins a quest that will propel Rob, anxious and unprepared, into the urban maelstrom of Tokyo. With the help of a colourful group of new acquaintances - a vigilant octogenarian; a beautiful 'love hotel' receptionist; an ex-sumo wrestler obsessed with Dolly Parton - the scene seems set for him to unravel the secrets surrounding Mr Satoshi's identity. But until he has faced his own demons, and begun to reconnect with the world around him, the answers Rob craves will remain tantalisingly beyond his reach ... Combining several interlocking mysteries spanning sixty years of history, Who Is Mr Satoshi is a uniquely inventive story from a dazzling new voice in British fiction.

Reviews

Compelling, funny and beautifully written, this novel is one of those rare treats - a book you won't want to put down -- Jennie Rooney, author of INSIDE THE WHALE
Jonathan Lee paints an exhilarating portrait of modern day Tokyo in limpid, intelligent prose as we accompany his narrator along his wildly labyrinthine voyage through the city. -- Chloe Aridjis
Funny and moving, Who Is Mr Satoshi introduces another newcomer who will catch prize judges' attentions. Set in Japan, it concerns Rob Fossick, an English photographer who has been unable to work since his wife died. When his mother, too, is suddenly killed, he discovers she has left instructions that he must deliver a package to a mysterious Mr Satoshi in Tokyo. Lurching from crisis to crisis as he stumbles drunk and weeping through a strange culture, he engages the help of a pink-haired Japanese girl and a former sumo wrestler. Fossick (a great name for someone on a quest) eventually unravels a mystery stretching back to the time of the Allied occupation. -- Giles Foden, author of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
an elegant and incisive examination of how history and our perceptions of the world are partial, filtered, and continually revised...Who is Mr Satoshi ask[s] intriguing questions about how we see, remember and narrate our lives. * Observer *
a lyrical page-turner * Naomi Alderman *

Author Bio

Jonathan Lee was born in Surrey in 1981. He graduated from the University of Bristol with a First in English Literature and then, after spending some time living in South America, went on to become a solicitor at a City law firm. In 2007 he was posted to the firm's Tokyo office, and during his time there became increasingly interested in Japanese culture and history. On his return to London he began writing his first novel, Who is Mr Satoshi