FICTION

The Boy in the Earth

by Fuminori Nakamura
Soho Crime. Apr. 2017. 160p. tr. from Japanese by Allison Markin Powell. ISBN 9781616955946. $23.95; ebk. ISBN 9781616955953. F
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Working the night shift, a young taxi driver sets in motion a string of mournful contemplations that sends him spiraling back to memories of his life with terrible foster parents, orphanages, and abuse. In the hopes of pulling himself out of this cycle of violence and uncertainty, he clings to his girlfriend, who (also damaged) is the connective reason he wants to find his way through his grim past and questionable future. Told in an intimate first-person narrative, Nakamura's (Evil and the Mask; The Gun) novel, translated for the first time into English, considers the long-term repercussions of abuse and a life on the fringe of society. The narrator's nihilistic view of the world creates a chaos of suicidal thoughts, violence, and uncertainty that builds and holds the novel's tension.
VERDICT Winner of the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary award, this well-written sparse character study in psychological obsession will appeal to readers who like their fiction dark.
Reviewed by Ron Samul, New London, CT , Apr 28, 2017
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