Point Zero
Seicho Matsumoto
(Author)
Louise Heal Kawai
(Translator)
Description
"A master crime writer...Seichō Matsumoto's thrillers dissect Japanese society."--The New York Times. A beautifully written mystery novel that takes on the taboo of Japanese prostitution catering to GIs during the American post-war occupation.Tokyo 1958, Teiko marries Kenichi Uhara, ten years her senior, an advertising man recommended by an intermediary. After a four-day honeymoon, Kenichi vanishes. Teiko travels to the coastal and snow-bound city of Kanazawa, where Kenichi was last seen, to investigate his disappearance.She discovers he had been a police officer in Tokyo after the war, keeping watch over pan pan girls, Japanese prostitutes catering to GIs. Some of these women have created a new life in Kanazawa and may have taken extreme measures to hide their past.
"Do you aspire to be a connoisseur of the best international crime fiction? If so, Seicho Matsumoto's Point Zero should be on your bedside table. Become acquainted with a crime master." Financial TimesProduct Details
Price
$16.95
$15.76
Publisher
Bitter Lemon Press
Publish Date
March 26, 2024
Pages
320
Dimensions
5.0 X 7.7 X 1.0 inches | 0.55 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781913394936
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
The Author and the TranslatorSeichō Matsumoto (1909-1982) was Japan's most successful mystery writer. His first detective novel, Points and Lines, sold over a million copies in Japan. Vessel of Sand, published in English as Inspector Imanishi Investigates in1989, sold over four million copies and became a movie box-office hit. Bitter Lemon published his novel A Quiet Place in 2016. Louise Heal Kawai comes from Manchester. She has spent the past twenty years Japan and currently lives in Yokohama. Her translations include Daido Tamaki's Milk, Tendo Shoko's best-selling autobiography Yakuza Moon, and for Bitter Lemon, Matsumoto's A Quiet Place.
Reviews
Praise for Matsumoto: "A master crime writer...Seichō Matsumoto's thrillers dissect Japanese society."--The New York Times Book Review "He writes in the classic tradition of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret of Paris; Nicholas Freeling's Inspector Van der Valk in Amsterdam; Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's Superintendent Beck in Stockholm; Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia in Florence, and P. D. James's Chief Inspector Dalgliesh in England."--New York TimesPraise for A Quiet Place by Matsumoto: "A surprising and immensely satisfying resolution that flows naturally from the book's complex characterizations. Readers will agree that Matsumoto deserves his reputation as Japan's Georges Simenon." --STARRED review Publishers Weekly "There's an element of the exquisite poetic Haiku form in the book, in the details that turn the story in new directions, and the tiniest mistakes that lead to tragic and unforeseen outcomes."--Spectator
