| The
legendary Japanese master’s Winter Sleep takes
you into the hardboiled world of art — where ex-cons are
philosophers, young lovers are combustible, and aesthetics is
life.
Nakagi, an ex-con painter who has sequestered himself in a mountain
cabin, is trying to elevate his art. The only thing breaking his
solitude are the visits of two women: an art dealer who wants
him to produce the sort of paintings that she would like to buy
from him, and a young, aspiring, and soulful apprentice. When
Nakagi welcomes an escaped felon into the emotionally fraught
fold, and begins to teach him to paint as well, Winter Sleep
awakens to a literally incendiary climax.
 Kenzo
Kitakata is the undisputed don of hardboiled and mystery writing
in Japan. Of his over one hundred novels, Winter Sleep
is his second to appear in English. His first, Ashes,
was one of Las Vegas Mercury’s 10 Best Novels of
2003, a BookSense Selection, and a Village Voice
Summer Read.
Mark Schilling is the author of The Yakuza Movie
Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films.
Kitakata is recently the recipient of the Eiji Yoshikawa Award,
given to revered veteran entertainment authors.
| “The
spirit of James M. Cain's novels hovers over Winter Sleep,
a bleak but compelling slice of deadpan noir.”
—The Seattle Times
“(Winter
Sleep) gives new meaning to the term ‘splatter.’”
—Agony Column
“Kitakata
manages his nihilistic climax with consummate control...it's absolutely
compelling to read.”
—The
Japan Times
“Kitakata…[is]
part Spillane, part Dostoevsky, but always hard-boiled.”
—Hackwriters.com
PRAISE FOR ASHES:
“Brilliantly contradictory...a refreshing crime
novel from
a notable Japanese author.” – Las Vegas
Mercury
“A real gem.” – BookSense
“Best enjoyed in a dimly lit, smoky room with a
glass of whisky on the rocks close at hand…Kitakata has
crafted a complex and contradictory character in Tanaka.”
—Daily Yomiuri
“Male brutality suffuses Kenzo Kitakata’s
portrait of a middle-aged gangster in Ashes. Like Tony
Soprano…this man, whose name is Tanaka, attracts our interest
and sometimes our sympathy.” —The Globe
and Mail
“Superbly translated into English by Emi Shimokawa,
Ashes is a gritty, hard-boiled mystery…Ashes
depicts yakuza life with a unique understanding and edge-of-your
seat reality.” —Midwest Book
Review
|
