Secret Rendezvous
Secret Rendezvous

Author: Kobo Abe

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2020-10-29

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0141993219

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'A gorgeously entertaining, provocative book' Chicago Tribune It is 4am when the ambulance comes to take the man's wife away - although no-one has called it, and there is nothing wrong with her. As he sets out to find her, he finds himself in the corridors of a vast underground hospital, where he encounters sinister medics, freakish sexual experiments and the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Even when he is suddenly appointed as the hospital's chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he is a horse, he will not give up his search. Secret Rendezvous is a nightmarish satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life. 'Reads as if it were the collaborative effort of Hieronymus Bosch, Franz Kafka and Mel Brooks' Chicago Sun Times

The Ruined Map
The Ruined Map

Author: Kobo Abe

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-12-14

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0307813703

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Of all the great Japanese novelists, Kobe Abe was indubitably the most versatile. With The Ruined Map, he crafted a mesmerizing literary crime novel that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the psychological depth of Dostoevsky. Mr. Nemuro, a respected salesman, disappeared over half a year ago, but only now does his alluring yet alcoholic wife hire a private eye. The nameless detective has but two clues: a photo and a matchbook. With these he embarks upon an ever more puzzling pursuit that leads him into the depths of Tokyo's dangerous underworld, where he begins to lose the boundaries of his own identity. Surreal, fast-paced, and hauntingly dreamlike, Abe’s masterly novel delves into the unknowable mysteries of the human mind. Translated from the Japanese by E. Dale Saunders.

Kangaroo Notebook
Kangaroo Notebook

Author: Kobo Abe

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 1997-04-29

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0679746633

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In the last novel written before his death in 1993, one of Japan's most distinguished novelists proffered a surreal vision of Japanese society that manages to be simultaneously fearful and jarringly funny. The narrator of Kangaroo Notebook wakes on morning to discover that his legs are growing radish sprouts, an ailment that repulses his doctor but provides the patient with the unusual ability to snack on himself. In short order, Kobo Abe's unraveling protagonist finds himself hurtling in a hospital bed to the very shores of hell. Abe has assembled a cast of oddities into a coherent novel, one imbued with unexpected meaning. Translated from the Japanese by Maryellen Toman Mori.

The Face of Another
The Face of Another

Author: Kobo Abe

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0141966432

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The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident - a man who has lost his face and, with it, connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him. His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self - a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity, and the social contract, THE FACE OF ANOTHER is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.