Fuminori Nakamura was born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. He has won numerous prizes for his writing, including the Oe Prize, Japan's largest literary award; the David L. Goodis Award for Noir Fiction; and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. The Thief, his first novel to be translated into English, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His other works include Evil and the Mask, The Gun and Last Winter, We Parted.
Praise for The Kingdom "Nakamura has described The Kingdom as a
sister novel to The Thief . . . But the new novel bests its
companion."
--The New York Times Book Review "Few protagonists in modern crime
fiction are as alienated as those in the challenging, violent,
grotesque tales of Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura . . . Yurika's
struggle to escape her vexed fate elevates this shocker well above
the lurid."
--The Wall Street Journal "Multilayered and intense . . . [The]
monstrous crime lord 'Kizaki' is a formidable nemesis."
--The Independent (UK) "The Kingdom offers another sample of
Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura's heady blend of disaffected
philosophy and noir suspense."
--Shelf Awareness "Dark and strangely seductive... A recommended
read for fans of noir as well as for anyone looking to be
mesmerized by a masterful storyteller."
--Pank Magazine "A face-paced, dark novel of psychological
suspense, told in a succinctly poetic style."
--Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine "[Yurika] makes an ideal guide into
Nakamura's nightmare kingdom, one node in a nihilistic entanglement
of lives forged outside of conventional legal and moral
frameworks."
--Publishers Weekly "With a complex yet sympathetic antiheroine who
must outwit the most cunning and twisted minds, -Nakamura's dark
crime novel sets the bar for gritty, twisted plots that keep
readers constantly guessing."
--Library Journal
"Nakamura is in a class by himself . . . His straightforward prose
advances the story quickly, even as he creates an atmosphere that
shimmers around the edges while slowly transforming the environment
and the characters."
--Book Reporter "On a par with Jo Nesbo or Don Winslow."
--Lit Hub
"Suspense writing at its tautest and most philosophical."
--Politics and Prose Bookstore "Unsettling, The Kingdom offers both
psychological suspense on the most intimate personal level as well
as some sinister geo-political (un-)doings in the background . . .
A quick, dark read, in which the reader is--like Yurika--constantly
kept off balance."
--The Complete Review "A classic in the making... Just make sure
there's room in your schedule for recovery from this highly
purposeful journey into darkness."
--Kingdom Books "If I had to name just one author who is absolutely
iconic in the field of border- and boundary-crushing noir, it would
be Fuminori Nakamura."
--Shotgun Logic "Nakamura excels in writing brief, taut suspense
and both this work and his exemplary The Gun really should be on
your reading list."
--Bookgasm.com Praise for Fuminori Nakamura
"Crime fiction that pushes past the bounds of genre, occupying its
own nightmare realm . . . Guilt or innocence is not the issue; we
are corrupted, complicit, just by living in society. The ties that
bind, in other words, are rules beyond our making, rules that
distance us not only from each other but also from ourselves."
--Los Angeles Times "This slim, icy, outstanding thriller,
reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Patricia Highsmith, should
establish Fuminori Nakamura as one of the most interesting Japanese
crime novelists at work today."
--USA Today "Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves
across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch "Some of the darkest noir fiction to come
out of Japan--or any country--in recent years . . . Nakamura's
stories, however labeled, are memorable forays into uncomfortable
terrain."
--Mystery Scene
Ask a Question About this Product More... |