Title: The Boy in the EarthAuthor: Fuminori Nakamura
Translator: Allison Markin Powell
First Published: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Soho Crime
Pages: 160
Genre: Crime, Literary Fiction, Noir, Psychological
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
As an unnamed Tokyo taxi driver works a night shift, picking up fares that offer him glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, he can’t escape his own nihilistic thoughts. Almost without meaning to, he puts himself in harm’s way; he can’t stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in obsessive fantasies that soon become terrifying blackout episodes. The truth is, his long-estranged father has tried to reach out to him, triggering a cascade of traumatic memories. As the cab driver wrestles with the truth about his past and the history of violence in his childhood, he must also confront his present, which is no less complicated or grim.
A precursor to Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist The Thief, The Boy in the Earth is a closely told character study that poses a difficult question: Are some lives so damaged they are beyond redemption? Is every child worth trying to save? A poignant and thought-provoking tour de force by one of Japan’s leading literary voices.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
The Boy in the Earth is pitch black noir novel about the aftershocks of trauma. The narrator is a depressed taxi driver drifting through life in a constant state of ennui. He has an unstable relationship with a runaway, he’s self-destructive and fantasizes about dying, and he does things to intentionally put himself in danger. Deep down he’s haunted by fragments of memories from his childhood.
The novel is as oppressively bleak as it gets, exploring the narrator’s memories, told in sparse prose, was like excavating a grave but I couldn’t stop reading. Despite all the darkness presented in this story, I was surprised to find just the faintest glimmer of hope in the narrative that made it feel strangely cathartic. I loved this book and am excited to read more of Nakamura’s books.
Quote
“I was born in the earth.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Fuminori Nakamura
Fuminori Nakamura was born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. He won the 2002 Shinchō Literary Prize for New Writers for his first novel, A Gun, the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for Shade in 2004, and the 2005 Akutagawa Prize for The Boy in the Earth. The Thief, his first novel to be translated into English, won the 2010 Oe Prize, Japan’s largest literary award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is the recipient of NoirCon’s David L. Goodis Award and currently lives in Tokyo with his wife.
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