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Secret Rendezvous

By Kobo Abe
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.47 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 2,122 ratings, 260 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe is a surreal and enigmatic exploration of identity and bureaucracy. The story follows a man's determined quest to find his wife after she is unexpectedly transported to a mysterious hospital. As he delves deeper, he encounters a bewildering array of absurd situations and characters, all set within a labyrinthine medical institution.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

If you enjoy exploring the surreal and the mysterious, this book's imaginative narrative filled with elusive encounters and Kafkaesque intrigue may capture your interest. Fans of psychological drama and existential themes might find the storyโ€™s exploration of identity and the absurd both thought-provoking and compelling.

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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

Secret Rendezvous is a Kafkaesque marvel and a biting satire of bureaucracy, medicine, and modern life.

In Tokyo, in the middle of the night, an uncalled-for ambulance arrives to spirit away a man's wife, though she is perfectly healthy. He sets out on an epic journey to find her, navigating the labyrinthine corridors of a strange and enormous hospital.

Days into his search, after encountering countless strange characters, odd sexual experiments, and an unmistakable feeling of being watched, he is suddenly appointed as the hospital's chief of security. His new boss is convinced that he is a horse. Throughout it all, he never stops searching for his wife.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Secret Rendezvous is described as both original and edgily entertaining, noted for its disconcerting humour. It is praised for being vivid and spooky, confirming Kobo Abe's status as a leading Japanese novelist.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241454619

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 October 2020

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 11.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 150g

Pages: 192

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Kobo Abe Literary Fiction New Release Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Series: Penguin Modern Classics

About the Author

Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. Before his death in 1993, Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been bestsellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man and The Ruined Map.

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  • The Box Man
    The Box Man by Kobo Abe is an existential and entertaining masterpiece. "This is the record of a box man." The streets of Tokyo have been seeing a strange phenomenon recentlyโ€”people who have decided to live their lives in a box on the street. Behind their cut-out eyeholes, they sit and watch from behind their four cardboard walls. Our nameless...
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  • The Ruined Map
    The Ruined Map is a hardboiled detective story that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the psychological suspense of Dostoevsky. Mr Nemuro, a respected salesman, disappeared over half a year ago, but only now does his alluring yet alcoholic wife hire a private eye. The nameless detective has but two clues: a photo and a matchbook. With these, he...
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  • The Woman in the Dunes
    New to Penguin Modern Classics One of the premier Japanese novels in the twentieth century, The Woman in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel. In a remote seaside village, Niki Jumpei, a teacher and amateur entomologist, is held captive with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit where they are...
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  • The Ark Sakura
    New in Penguin Japanese Classics - a surreal work of apocalyptic science fiction. Introducing Penguin Japanese Classics - a collection of some of Japan's most celebrated and ground-breaking 20th-century writers, with covers inspired by Japanese art and design. Taking us from a sun-drenched affair in a seaside town to an underground 'ark' full of shadows and eccentrics, with stops at...
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