Out

Zusatztext 53226348 Informationen zum Autor Natsuo Kirino Klappentext Nothing in Japanese literature prepares us for the stark, tension-filled, plot-driven realism of Natsuo Kirino's award-winning literary mystery Out . This mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot's ringleader, but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society. At once a masterpiece of literary suspense and pitch-black comedy of gender warfare, Out is also a moving evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds, and the friendships that bolster them in the aftermath. Night Shift 1 She got to the parking lot earlier than usual. The thick, damp July darkness engulfed her as she stepped out of the car. Perhaps it was the heat and humidity, but the night seemed especially black and heavy. Feeling a bit short of breath, Masako Katori looked up at the starless night sky. Her skin, which had been cool and dry in the air-conditioned car, began to feel sticky. Mixed in with the exhaust fumes from the Shin-Oume Expressway, she could smell the faint odor of deep-fried food, the odor of the boxed-lunch factory where she was going to work. "I want to go home." The moment the smell hit her, the words came into her head. She didn't know exactly what home it was she wanted to go to, certainly not the one she'd just left. But why didn't she want to go back there? And where did she want to go? She felt lost. From midnight until five-thirty without a break, she had to stand at the conveyor belt making boxed lunches. For a part-time job, the pay was good, but the work was backbreaking. More than once, when she was feeling unwell, she'd been stopped here in the parking lot by the thought of the hard shift ahead. But this was different, this feeling of aimlessness. As she always did at this moment, she lit a cigarette, but tonight she realized for the first time that she did it to cover the smell of the factory. The boxed-lunch factory was in the middle of the Musashi-Murayama district, facing a road that was abutting the gray wall of a large automobile plant. Otherwise, the area was given over to dusty fields and a cluster of small auto repair shops. The land was flat and the sky stretched in every direction. The parking lot was a three-minute walk from Masako's workplace, beyond another factory, now abandoned. It was no more than a vacant lot that had been roughly graded. The parking spaces had once been marked off with strips of tape, but dust had long since made them almost invisible. The employees' cars were parked at random angles across the lot. It was a place where no one would be likely to notice someone hiding in the grass or behind a car. The whole effect was somehow sinister, and Masako glanced around nervously as she locked the car. She heard the sound of tires, and for an instant the overgrown summer grass that bordered the lot shone in the yellow headlights. A green Volkswagen Golf cabriolet, top down, drove into the lot, and her plump co-worker, Kuniko Jonouchi, nodded from the driver's seat. "Sorry I'm late," she said, pulling the car into the space next to Masako's faded red Corolla. Her driving seemed careless, and she made more noise than necessary putting on the hand brake and closing the car door. Everything about her was shrill and gaudy. Masako stubbed out her cigarette with the toe of her sneaker. "Nice car," she said. The subject of Kuniko's car had come up a number of times at the factory. "You really think so?" Kuniko sai...

A nervy thriller. . . . Out has the force of a juicy tabloid scandal. . . . A potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice.” –The New York Times Book Review

“Scarily omniscient. . . . Like Walter Mosley, [Kirino] exploits the beat-down potential of the hard-boiled novel to depict life on society's bottom in ways that subtly read as one part social protest, one part sadomasochistic entertainment.” –The Village Voice

“A gutsy, unflinching foray into the darkest, most dangerous recesses of the human soul. . . . Riveting, hair-raising . . . definitely not for the faint-of-heart.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Mingling biting feminist commentary with engrossing storytelling . . . a scathing allegory about the subjugation of women in Japanese society and the secret lives this forces them to lead.” *–The New York Times

*“Masterful and psychologically astute.” –*San Francisco Chronicle

“A brutally realistic picture of contemporary society. . . . Spare, unsentimental.” –*Newsweek

“So dark, so gruesome . . . it left this reader reeling. No gritty urban American tale of violence can match the horror of Out.” –Carol Memmott, *USA Today

• “Daring and disturbing, Out is prepared to push the limits of this world–not only in violence and sex but also in human outlook. . . . Remarkable.” –*Los Angeles Times
• “Truly a universal tale. . . . Kirino knows not only everybody’s business but everybody’s mind–her way with interior monologue is pungent and prismatic.” –The *Village Voice
• “Brings the mystery thriller to new levels of intensity and realism. . . . Out has great plot twists, vigor, and an ending that would make Hannibal Lecter smile.” –Library Journal (starred review)

“Sensational.” –Time Out, NY

“Finally, a masterpiece in this genre . . . . a novel that realistically shows how ordinary people can be drawn into committing brutal crimes.” — Prize Jury, Mystery Writers of Japan

“Forget about flower arranging and geisha girls. . . . Out offers an intriguing look at the darker sides of Japanese society while smashing stereotypes about Japanese women.” –Washington Post Book World

“A knuckle-clenching thriller.” –*Entertainment Weekly

• “Grimly satisfying . . . like no one you’ve ever read before.” –*Kirkus Reviews
• “Out descends beneath the genre’s foundation to provide a remarkable series of insights into the forces that drive the charnel house of a postindustrial culture.” –American Book Review

“Dark, seductive and occasionally brutal, Out explores the lower classes of Japanese society with a distinctive gallows humor.” –Book

“A gutsy, unflinching foray into the darkest, most dangerous recesses of the human soul. And the book’s riveting, hair-raising final scenes, although definitely not for the faint-at-heart, serve as an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom has the potential to set any ordinary individual among us off down a very dark and lonely road.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Out turns the whole subservient geisha image on its head.” –*Jane

• “Absurdly compellingÉa superb and riveting thriller.” –Book Trust (UK)

“An exciting, disturbing read. . . . Kirino’s Tokyo is an unexpected place, far from the glamorous stereotype.” –Telegraph (UK)

“A feminist revenge plot meets social critique and hardcore horror in a startling Japanese mix of satire and sensation.”–The Independent (UK)

“A page-turning thriller that at the same time delivers one of the most powerful wallops for feminist literature in recent memory.”&…