The Kingdom

Chapter 1
 
When did I realize I would never get what I wanted most?
     Maybe I was in my twenties. Or maybe I was a child, just old enough to make sense of the world. Back when I did nothing but glare at everyone around me, what I wanted most was far away. It was not something tangible. It made my skin burn. It ignored all the rules. It went beyond morals and reason. It was something that could overturn the foundations of everything I thought my life would become. I wonder if I still want it. What would I do if I got it?
 
 
The man in front of me, bathed in blue light, was looking at me. I smiled and watched the passion build in his eyes. He glanced at my chest, then returned his gaze to my face. He acted relaxed as he closed in on me one step at a time.
       I can t believe it. I d never have thought you were a prostitute.
     Properly speaking, I m not a prostitute, but I smiled anyway. The man slid his fingers between mine.
       I don t tell anyone I don t like, I said. It s wonderful. Much better than watching TV.
     I pressed my body against his and kissed his neck. I held his hand gently, and brought it up to my chest. He touched my chest reluctantly. Though I didn t feel anything special, I began to mix heavy breathing into my speech.
       . . .You can forget it all. Do what you want to me. Mmm . . . Whatever you want.
     His temperature rose. Humans do not always make
rational decisions. When our senses are shaken, we become defenseless. I felt the hand on my breast growing bolder. I stroked the man s lips with my finger, and put a pill in his mouth.
       What s this?
       It s kind of like a mild Viagra. You can get it at any pharmacy, but it s pretty good.

Fuminori Nakamura has won numerous prizes for his writing, including the e Prize, Japan s largest literary award; the David L. Goodis Award for Noir Fiction; 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 works include Evil and the Mask, The Gun, The Boy in the Earth, and Last Winter, We Parted.

Praise for The Kingdom

Nakamura has described The Kingdom as a sister novel to The Thief . . . But the new novel bests its companion.
The New York Times Book Review

"Few protagonists in modern crime fiction are as alienated as those in the challenging, violent, grotesque tales of Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura . . . Yurika s struggle to escape her vexed fate elevates this shocker well above the lurid."
The Wall Street Journal

"Multilayered and intense . . . [The] monstrous crime lord Kizaki is a formidable nemesis."
The Independent (UK)

"The Kingdom offers another sample of Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura's heady blend of disaffected philosophy and noir suspense."
Shelf Awareness

"Dark and strangely seductive... A recommended read for fans of noir as well as for anyone looking to be mesmerized by a masterful storyteller."
Pank Magazine

"A face-paced, dark novel of psychological suspense, told in a succinctly poetic style."
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"[Yurika] makes an ideal guide into Nakamura s nightmare kingdom, one node in a nihilistic entanglement of lives forged outside of conventional legal and moral frameworks."
Publishers Weekly

"With a complex yet sympathetic antiheroine who must outwit the most cunning and twisted minds, ­Nakamura s dark crime novel sets the bar for gritty, twisted plots that keep readers constantly guessing."
Library Journal 

Nakamura is in a class by himself . . . His straightforward prose advances the story quickly, even as he creates an atmosphere that shimmers around the edges while slowly transforming the environment and the characters.
Book Reporter

"On a par with Jo Nesbo or Don Winslow."
Lit Hub

"Suspense writing at its tautest and most philosophical."
Politics and Prose Bookstore

"Unsettling, The Kingdom offers both psychological suspense on the