The Gun
(Sprache: Englisch)
A Tokyo college student s discovery and eventual obsession with a stolen handgun awakens something dark inside him.
On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From...
On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From...
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A Tokyo college student s discovery and eventual obsession with a stolen handgun awakens something dark inside him.On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From the moment Nishikawa decides to take the gun, the world around him blurs. Knowing he possesses the weapon brings an intoxicating sense of purpose to his dull university life. But soon Nishikawa s personal entanglements become unexpectedly complicated: he finds himself romantically involved with two women while his biological father, whom he s never met, lies dying in a hospital. Through it all, he can t stop thinking about the gun and the four bullets loaded in its chamber. As he spirals into obsession, his focus is consumed by one idea: that possessing the gun is no longer enough he must fire it.
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Chapter 1Last night, I found a gun. Or you could say I stole it, I m not really sure. I ve never seen something so beautiful, or that feels so right in my hand. I didn t have much interest in guns before, but the moment I saw it, all I could think about was making it mine.
It was raining last night. The kind of rain that seems like it will never stop, that falls at an angle, so even if you use an umbrella you still get soaked. I had been out walking around in it if I had to say what time, it was about eleven at night. The relentlessness of the rain seemed to symbolize my own melancholy, and although from the knee down I was sopping wet and cold and couldn t wait to get out of it, for whatever reason I made no effort to head back home to my apartment. I really can t say why I kept walking around outside. I guess for no reason other than I just felt like walking, and I had no desire to go back to my own place. My actions were often motivated by such vague justifications. With no real plan, I changed course, passing through a street lined with darkened shops and along a side street that bordered a small park. I remember clearly that there was a small cat under a parked white van. The cat was staring at me. Come to think of it, this wasn t the only time a cat was watching me before something major happened. I didn t really register it at that moment, but now it seems like it might have been a forewarning.
I went over the railway tracks at a crossing, and passed through a warren of streets. Water had collected and was dripping down off of the edge of the roof of an old apartment building, falling persistently and loudly on broken pieces of prefab that were lying around. It was that sound, more than being pelted by the rain, that prompted me to think I ought to get back home soon. In my mind, I pictured myself hurrying home, taking a shower, and changing into dry clothes. Yet I continued my aimless wandering with no
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end in sight. No matter how often I think about it, I can t seem to attach any specific meaning to my actions at that time. But then, it really wasn t all that unusual for me. On rare occasions, I would let things happen that were I don t know the opposite of what I wanted to do. Soaking wet and still nursing my melancholy thoughts, I kept walking.
Despite all this, I still take pleasure in the choice I made that night. I hardly ever used to evaluate my own past actions. I really didn t make a habit of thinking too hard about right and wrong, or about the consequences that arose from either. But I feel something akin to gratitude for what I did that night. Had I simply gone back to my apartment, I wouldn t have the gun in my hands now. In contrast, when I think about the possibility of never having had the gun, I am seized with a vague terror. Maybe it s wrong to think that, since it wasn t mine to begin with.
The next thing I did was buy a can of coffee from a vending machine. I wasn t thirsty, but I often drink coffee while I m walking, so I bought it out of habit, more or less. I flipped the tab and took a sip as I stepped carefully to avoid the puddles that had formed on the asphalt. The sky was overcast with heavy gray clouds neither the moon nor the stars were visible. There was a chill in the air the rain had banished any trace of warmth from earlier in the day.
I continued to wander. Literally wandering; like I said before, I had no destination. I drank the canned coffee as I listened to the sound of the rain, and after I finished the coffee, I lit a cigarette. I passed through another warren of streets lined on either side with residences, and emerged onto a wide avenue. Cars sped along right beside me, sending up spray, not a single one slowing down as it pas
Despite all this, I still take pleasure in the choice I made that night. I hardly ever used to evaluate my own past actions. I really didn t make a habit of thinking too hard about right and wrong, or about the consequences that arose from either. But I feel something akin to gratitude for what I did that night. Had I simply gone back to my apartment, I wouldn t have the gun in my hands now. In contrast, when I think about the possibility of never having had the gun, I am seized with a vague terror. Maybe it s wrong to think that, since it wasn t mine to begin with.
The next thing I did was buy a can of coffee from a vending machine. I wasn t thirsty, but I often drink coffee while I m walking, so I bought it out of habit, more or less. I flipped the tab and took a sip as I stepped carefully to avoid the puddles that had formed on the asphalt. The sky was overcast with heavy gray clouds neither the moon nor the stars were visible. There was a chill in the air the rain had banished any trace of warmth from earlier in the day.
I continued to wander. Literally wandering; like I said before, I had no destination. I drank the canned coffee as I listened to the sound of the rain, and after I finished the coffee, I lit a cigarette. I passed through another warren of streets lined on either side with residences, and emerged onto a wide avenue. Cars sped along right beside me, sending up spray, not a single one slowing down as it pas
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Autoren-Porträt von Fuminori Nakamura
Fuminori Nakamura was born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. He has won numerous prizes for his writing, including the e Prize, Japan s largest literary award; the David L. Goodis Award; and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. The Thief, his first novel to be translated into English, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His other novels include The Kingdom, Evil and the Mask, The Boy in the EarthLast Winter, We Parted.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Fuminori Nakamura
- 2017, 224 Seiten, Maße: 13,8 x 20,9 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Übersetzer: Allison Markin Powell
- Verlag: Soho Crime
- ISBN-10: 1616957689
- ISBN-13: 9781616957681
- Erscheinungsdatum: 10.09.2019
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for The GunA Wall Street Journal Best Mystery of 2016
A World Literature Today Notable Translation for 2016
An ABA IndieNext Selection
BookRiot 100 Must-Read Novels of Noir
"A thriller in the same elevated sense as is Dostoevsky s Crime and Punishment or Camus s The Stranger . . . Nature versus nurture, free will versus fate: Such are the themes that flicker almost subliminally through this shocking narrative, which also emits echoes of Poe and Mishima."
Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"More a suspenseful study of obsession than a crime novel, Nakamura s noir story, translated by Allison Markin Powell, is about liberation . . . Love, even illicit love, has a way of bringing out the best or the worst in a person."
The New York Times Book Review
"Chilling."
Toronto Star
"[Nakamura] tightens the screws on his character with eerie effectiveness, making the inevitable outcome shudder on the page."
Chicago Tribune
"[The Gun] offers an addictive one might even say compulsive night s worth of chillingly unnerving entertainment."
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
"[Nakamura] straddles the crime-literary fiction boundary like few others. It gives a new twist to Chekhov s rule: a gun mentioned in the first act or here, a gun found by a dead body in the opening pages must eventually be fired."
Maclean's
"A fascinating, addictive thriller."
The Japan News
"[A] powerful existential thriller."
The Sunday Times (UK)
"A compelling study of a man whose deep wounds begin to open when, by accident, he stumbles across a gun. Nakamura understands how a life can swirl and eddy around an inanimate object, becoming so possessed by it as to suddenly be not a life at all."
Brian Evenson, author of Windeye
"[Nakamura] spins dark, brooding tales of crime, deftly using acts such as murder and theft
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as unsettling ruminations on the human psyche and its predilection for darkness."
The Straits Times (Singapore)
"One of the jewels in the Japanese crime-fiction crown, [Nakamura's] debut novel features a nihilistic anti-hero filled with terrible rage."
South China Morning Post
"An unforgettable, heart-pounding journey into the world of psychological suspense."
Crimespree Magazine
"The psychological downward spiral into obsession is what drives this book, and during my reading, I couldn t help but think that Alfred Hitchcock could have created a brilliant film adaptation."
Bruce Tierney, BookPage
"An intense, claustrophobic, and effective noir/philosophical thriller."
International Noir Fiction
"Utterly brilliant."
CounterPunch
"Another masterwork from one of the best modern practitioners of the crime novel."
World Literature Today
"Nakamura does obsessive and delusional very well . . . A fine first effort by a talented writer."
The Complete Review
"Chilling."
Reading Matters
"No crime author out there is currently doing what Fuminori Nakamura is doing. I ve read every novel of his Soho Press has translated and they ve all been unique in their subject matter and tone and exactly the same in terms of effectiveness and the wonderfully bizarre, oblique way in which Nakamura approaches the genre."
Gabino Iglesias, Dead End Follies
"[An] intense work of suspense and increasing madness."
Kingdom Books
"An incredibly tense story about how obsession can mold your actions and how an inanimate object can become animate in the 'right' pair of hands."
Old Firehouse Books, Ft. Collins, Colorado
"The author does more in less than 200 pages than most authors could pull off in 600 . . . Stripped down, focused, intense, and worth every second you spend reading."
Bookgasm
"Suspenseful to the last page, Nakamura s existential noir translates well to America, [and is] a timely allegory for our gun-crazed culture."
Library Journal
"This portrait of obsession and madness starts slowly but soon exerts an almost hypnotic pull as we contemplate both the extent of Nishikawa s alienation and the primal allure of these little machines for killing."
Booklist
"Drenched literally in noir atmosphere . . . Almost a thesis on the seductive potential of handguns."
Kirkus Reviews
"[Nakamura] paints the story in short strokes, capturing nuance in simple, short sentences, somehow squeezing out the personal in cold prose. His story is small in the sense that it is only one person s strange world we see; yet universal in the way it characterizes how we might be led into it."
Ronald Tierney
Praise for Fuminori Nakamura
Japan Objects' Best Japanese Authors of All Time
"This slim, icy, outstanding thriller, reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Patricia Highsmith, should establish Fuminori Nakamura as one of the most interesting Japanese crime novelists at work today."
USA Today
"The Thief brings to mind Highsmith, Mishima and Dostoevsky . . . A chilling existential thriller leaving readers in doubt without making them feel in any way cheated."
The Wall Street Journal, Best Book of the Year Selection
"Deliciously twisted . . . Nakamura bend[s] the line between what is good and what is evil until it nearly breaks. It's impressive how a book so dark can be so much fun."
Grantland
"His grasp of the seamy underbelly of the city is why Nakamura is one of the most award-winning young guns of Japanese hardboiled detective writing."
Daily Beast
"Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility."
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Straits Times (Singapore)
"One of the jewels in the Japanese crime-fiction crown, [Nakamura's] debut novel features a nihilistic anti-hero filled with terrible rage."
South China Morning Post
"An unforgettable, heart-pounding journey into the world of psychological suspense."
Crimespree Magazine
"The psychological downward spiral into obsession is what drives this book, and during my reading, I couldn t help but think that Alfred Hitchcock could have created a brilliant film adaptation."
Bruce Tierney, BookPage
"An intense, claustrophobic, and effective noir/philosophical thriller."
International Noir Fiction
"Utterly brilliant."
CounterPunch
"Another masterwork from one of the best modern practitioners of the crime novel."
World Literature Today
"Nakamura does obsessive and delusional very well . . . A fine first effort by a talented writer."
The Complete Review
"Chilling."
Reading Matters
"No crime author out there is currently doing what Fuminori Nakamura is doing. I ve read every novel of his Soho Press has translated and they ve all been unique in their subject matter and tone and exactly the same in terms of effectiveness and the wonderfully bizarre, oblique way in which Nakamura approaches the genre."
Gabino Iglesias, Dead End Follies
"[An] intense work of suspense and increasing madness."
Kingdom Books
"An incredibly tense story about how obsession can mold your actions and how an inanimate object can become animate in the 'right' pair of hands."
Old Firehouse Books, Ft. Collins, Colorado
"The author does more in less than 200 pages than most authors could pull off in 600 . . . Stripped down, focused, intense, and worth every second you spend reading."
Bookgasm
"Suspenseful to the last page, Nakamura s existential noir translates well to America, [and is] a timely allegory for our gun-crazed culture."
Library Journal
"This portrait of obsession and madness starts slowly but soon exerts an almost hypnotic pull as we contemplate both the extent of Nishikawa s alienation and the primal allure of these little machines for killing."
Booklist
"Drenched literally in noir atmosphere . . . Almost a thesis on the seductive potential of handguns."
Kirkus Reviews
"[Nakamura] paints the story in short strokes, capturing nuance in simple, short sentences, somehow squeezing out the personal in cold prose. His story is small in the sense that it is only one person s strange world we see; yet universal in the way it characterizes how we might be led into it."
Ronald Tierney
Praise for Fuminori Nakamura
Japan Objects' Best Japanese Authors of All Time
"This slim, icy, outstanding thriller, reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Patricia Highsmith, should establish Fuminori Nakamura as one of the most interesting Japanese crime novelists at work today."
USA Today
"The Thief brings to mind Highsmith, Mishima and Dostoevsky . . . A chilling existential thriller leaving readers in doubt without making them feel in any way cheated."
The Wall Street Journal, Best Book of the Year Selection
"Deliciously twisted . . . Nakamura bend[s] the line between what is good and what is evil until it nearly breaks. It's impressive how a book so dark can be so much fun."
Grantland
"His grasp of the seamy underbelly of the city is why Nakamura is one of the most award-winning young guns of Japanese hardboiled detective writing."
Daily Beast
"Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility."
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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