The Devil of Nanking

Obsessed by the past, a young Englishwoman arrives in Tokyo to seek a long-lost piece of film footage dating back to the 1937 Nanking Massacre, journeying from the decadent hostess bars and palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins in Tokyo to deep inside the secret history of the massacre in her pursuit of the truth. Reader's Guide available. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

Auteur

Mo Hayder has worked as a filmmaker, a Tokyo nightclub hostess, and a teacher. She is also the author of Birdman, The Treatment, Pig Island, Ritual, Skin, Gone, Hanging Hill, and Poppet.

Texte du rabat

“Dazzling . . . In this extremely creepy book, Hayder’s third, the diabolically gifted British author spins a fascinating mystery from the legacy of Japanese atrocities during World War II.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A haunting, lyrical, disturbing, important, suspenseful, wonderfully written and beautiful book. You will love reading it, and you will not soon forget the experience.”—Harlan Coben

Grey has a lot to prove and even more to hide. A young Englishwoman obsessed with a past she cannot understand, she has come to Tokyo following rumors of a rare piece of film footage shot during the notorious Nanking Massacre in 1937, which has been lost for decades. But the only man who can help, a survivor of the massacre and now a visiting professor at a prestigious Tokyo university, will have nothing to do with her. Increasingly desperate in an alien city, Grey accepts a job as a hostess in an upmarket nightspot catering to Japanese businessmen and wealthy yakuza, where one gangster—an old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage, rumored to rely on a powerful elixir for his continued health—might be the key to the answers Grey seeks. Taut and gritty, with the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-tingling characters of Thomas Harris, The Devil of Nanking is a tour de force that confirms Mo Hayder as a thriller writer of the first order.

“Wrenching . . . A beautifully controlled thriller about culture clash . . . Scary.”—Douglas Wolk, The New York Times Book Review

“There is a terrible beauty to both narratives as they unfold toward an agonizing but inevitable conclusion, with the two stories dovetailing exquisitely . . . The Devil of Nanking just may be one of the best books of the year.”—Tom and Enid Schantz, The Denver Post