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Knopf
September 2007
On Sale: September 11, 2007
368 pages
ISBN: 0307263746
EAN: 9780307263742
Hardcover
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Fiction
From โBritish crime fictionโs most exciting new voice in decadesโ (GQ) comes an electrifying novel that revisits a series of shocking crimes committed in postโWorld War II, bombed-out, American-occupied Tokyo. On August 15, 1946โthe first anniversary of the Japanese surrenderโthe partially decomposed, raped, and strangled bodies of two women are found in Shiba Park. More murders will soon be uncovered: women killed in the same way, and, it becomes clear, by the same hand. Narrated by the irreverent, despairing yet determined Detective Minami of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Tokyo Year Zero tells a fictionalized story of the real-life hunt for โthe Japanese Bluebeardโโa decorated Imperial soldier who raped and murdered at least ten women amid the bleak turmoil of post-war Japan (โone huge sea of displaced persons . . . one minute here and one minute goneโ). And it is the story of Detective Minami: chasing down, and haunted by, memories of atrocities that he can no longer explain or forgive. Unblinking in its vision of a nation in a chaotic, hellish period in its history; of the rawness of emotion left in the wake of war; and of the moral and psychological corruption engendered by its aftermathโTokyo Year Zero is unforgettable, a darkly lyrical and stunningly original crime novel.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - November 6, 2007
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