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In the Miso Soup

A Novel
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Set in the neon-lit underworld of Tokyo's sex industry, In the Miso Soup follows Kenji, a guide to the city's nightlife, as he escorts Frank, an American tourist whose increasingly disturbing behaviour sparks a chilling suspicion. As Kenji is drawn deeper into a dark and violent spiral, his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, may be the only hope of escape from this nightmarish descent.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4800

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Recommended for readers who enjoy intense crime thrillers and psychological dramas set in urban environments.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Tokyo tour guide Kenji takes on Frank--a great white whale of an American tourist--and soon begins to suspect that he might be the serial killer that is terrorizing the city.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

"Mr. Murakami’s novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths." —The New York Times

In the Miso Soup by postmodern Renaissance man Ryu Murakami, master of the psychothriller and director of Tokyo Decadence, offers a hair-raising roller-coaster ride through the nefarious neon-lit world of Tokyo’s sex industry.

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780143035695

Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 March 2006

Country: United States

Imprint: Penguin USA

Contributors:

  • Translated by Ralph McCarthy

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 180.0mm

Weight: 153g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Ryu Murakami was born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture, Ryu Murakami is the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for his first book, a novel about a group of young people drowned in sex and drugs, he has gone on to explore with cinematic intensity the themes of violence and technology in contemporary Japanese society. His novels include Piercing, Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, Audition, In the Miso Soup and From the Fatherland, with Love. Murakami is also a screenwriter and a director; his films include Tokyo Decadence, Audition and Because of You.


Ralph McCarthy is a noted translator, whose translations include Ryu Murakami’s Audition, In the Miso Soup, Piercing, Sixty-Nine, and From The Fatherland, With Love. He is also the translator of two collections of stories by Osamu Dazai—Self Portraits and Blue Bamboo, as well as Fairy-Tale Book of Dazai Osamu.

Also by Ryu Murakami

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  • In The Miso Soup
    It’s just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo’s nightlife. But Frank’s behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an...
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  • Coin Locker Babies
    Coin Locker Babies is a cult cyberpunk masterpiece and Ryu Murakami's most famous novel. Two babies are left in a Tokyo station coin locker and survive against the odds, but their lives are forever tainted by this inauspicious start. As they grow up, they join the ranks of Toxitown: a district of addicts, freaks and prostitutes. While one becomes a...
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  • Sixty-Nine
    In a small, inconsequential city in Japan, all that matters to 17-year-old Kensuke Yazaki and his friends is girls, rock music and, to a much lesser extent, school. Told at high speed and with irresistible humour by Kensuke himself, this is the story of their 1969, as they engage in heated conversations about Marxism, Rimbaud, Godard, the Beatles and the...
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  • Popular Hits of the Showa Era
    It's a set-up like a video game: two rival gangs fight to death for the control of a Tokyo district. In one gang, six young losers committed only to drinking, voyeurism, and karaoke singing; in the other, six tough independent older women. From ambush to revenge, both groups are gradually decimated until the ultimate showdown. In Murakami's inimitably brutal and...
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  • From the Fatherland with Love
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