Reviews
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2013 FINALIST A Wall Street Journal BEST FICTON OF 2012 SELECTION A Wall Street Journal BEST MYSTERY OF 2012 A World Literature Today NOTABLE TRANSLATION A Los Angeles Times BOOK PRIZE NOMINEE *A World Literature Today Notable Translation of the Year *An Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of the Month *Winner of Japan's Prestigious Oe Prize " The Thief brings to mind Highsmith, Mishima and Doestoevsky ... A chilling philosophical thriller leaving readers in doubt without making them feel in any way cheated." - The Wall Street Journal , BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR selection "Nakamura''s prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility. I defy you not to finish the book in a single sitting." - Richmond Times Dispatch "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 "Fascinating. I want to write something like The Thief someday myself." - Natsuo Kirino , bestselling author of Edgar-nominated Out and Grotesque "It''s simple and utterly compelling - great beach reading for the deeply cynical. If you crossed Michael Connelly and Camus and translated it from Japanese." - Grantland "Surreal." - Sacramento Bee "Page-Turner" pick "Disguised as fast-paced, shock-fueled crime fiction, Thief resonates even more as a treatise on contemporary disconnect and paralyzing isolation." - Library Journal "I was deeply impressed with The Thief . It is fresh." - Kenzaburo Oe , Nobel Prizewinning author of A Personal Matter "Nakamura's memorable antihero, at once as believably efficient as Donald Westlake's Parker and as disaffected as a Camus protagonist, will impress genre and literary readers alike." - Publishers Weekly "Fast-paced, elegantly written, and rife with the symbols of inevitability." - ForeWord "Compulsively readable for its portrait of a dark, crumbling, graffiti-scarred Tokyo-and the desire to understand the mysterious thief." - Booklist "The drily philosophical tone and the noir atmosphere combine perfectly, providing a rapid and enjoyable "read" that is nonetheless cool and distant, provoking the reader to think about (as much as experience) the tale." - International Noir Fiction " The Thief manages to wrap you up in its pages, tightly, before you are quite aware of it." - Mystery Scene "Nakamura succeeds in creating a complicated crime novel in which the focus is not on the crimes themselves but rather on the psychology and physicality of the criminal. The book's power inheres in the voice of the thief, which is itself as meticulously rendered as the thief's every action." - Three Percent "Unique and engrossing." - Mystery People "Readers will be enthralled by this story that offers an extremely surprising ending."- Suspense Magazine "Along the way the reader catches glimpses of Japan and its lifestyle, which is far from a pretty picture" - Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine "So many issues are raised in this novel. It is wonderfully brief, and spare, much like something Hemingway would write." - Dolce Bellezza Blog From the Hardcover edition., "Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility. I defy you not to finish the book in a single sitting." - Richmond Times Dispatch "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 "Fascinating. I want to write something like The Thief someday myself." - Natsuo Kirino , bestselling author of Edgar-nominated Out and Grotesque "It's simple and utterly compelling - great beach reading for the deeply cynical. If you crossed Michael Connelly and Camus and translated it from Japanese." - Grantland "Surreal." - Sacramento Bee "Page-Turner" pick "Disguised as fast-paced, shock-fueled crime fiction, Thief resonates even more as a treatise on contemporary disconnect and paralyzing isolation." - Library Journal "I was deeply impressed with The Thief . It is fresh." - Kenzaburo Oe , Nobel Prizewinning author of A Personal Matter "Nakamura's memorable antihero, at once as believably efficient as Donald Westlake's Parker and as disaffected as a Camus protagonist, will impress genre and literary readers alike." - Publishers Weekly "Fast-paced, elegantly written, and rife with the symbols of inevitability." - ForeWord "Compulsively readable for its portrait of a dark, crumbling, graffiti-scarred Tokyo-and the desire to understand the mysterious thief." - Booklist "The drily philosophical tone and the noir atmosphere combine perfectly, providing a rapid and enjoyable "read" that is nonetheless cool and distant, provoking the reader to think about (as much as experience) the tale." - International Noir Fiction " The Thief manages to wrap you up in its pages, tightly, before you are quite aware of it."- Mystery Scene "Unique and engrossing." - Mystery People "Readers will be enthralled by this story that offers an extremely surprising ending."- Suspense Magazine "Along the way the reader catches glimpses of Japan and its lifestyle, which is far from a pretty picture" - Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine "So many issues are raised in this novel. It is wonderfully brief, and spare, much like something Hemingway would write." - Dolce Bellezza Blog From the Hardcover edition., Wall Street Journal 10 BEST FICTON OF THE YEAR Wall Street Journal 10 BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF THE YEAR World Literature Today NOTABLE TRANSLATION " The Thief brings to mind Highsmith, Mishima and Doestoevsky ... A chilling philosophical thriller leaving readers in doubt without making them feel in any way cheated." - The Wall Street Journal , BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR selection "Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility. I defy you not to finish the book in a single sitting." - Richmond Times Dispatch "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 "Fascinating. I want to write something like The Thief someday myself." - Natsuo Kirino , bestselling author of Edgar-nominated Out and Grotesque "It's simple and utterly compelling - great beach reading for the deeply cynical. If you crossed Michael Connelly and Camus and translated it from Japanese." - Grantland "Surreal." - Sacramento Bee "Page-Turner" pick "Disguised as fast-paced, shock-fueled crime fiction, Thief resonates even more as a treatise on contemporary disconnect and paralyzing isolation." - Library Journal "I was deeply impressed with The Thief . It is fresh." - Kenzaburo Oe , Nobel Prizewinning author of A Personal Matter "Nakamura's memorable antihero, at once as believably efficient as Donald Westlake's Parker and as disaffected as a Camus protagonist, will impress genre and literary readers alike." - Publishers Weekly "Fast-paced, elegantly written, and rife with the symbols of inevitability." - ForeWord "Compulsively readable for its portrait of a dark, crumbling, graffiti-scarred Tokyo-and the desire to understand the mysterious thief." - Booklist "The drily philosophical tone and the noir atmosphere combine perfectly, providing a rapid and enjoyable "read" that is nonetheless cool and distant, provoking the reader to think about (as much as experience) the tale." - International Noir Fiction " The Thief manages to wrap you up in its pages, tightly, before you are quite aware of it." - Mystery Scene "Nakamura succeeds in creating a complicated crime novel in which the focus is not on the crimes themselves but rather on the psychology and physicality of the criminal. The book's power inheres in the voice of the thief, which is itself as meticulously rendered as the thief's every action." - Three Percent "Unique and engrossing." - Mystery People "Readers will be enthralled by this story that offers an extremely surprising ending."- Suspense Magazine "Along the way the reader catches glimpses of Japan and its lifestyle, which is far from a pretty picture" - Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine "So many issues are raised in this novel. It is wonderfully brief, and spare, much like something Hemingway would write." - Dolce Bellezza Blog From the Hardcover edition., "Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility. I defy you not to finish the book in a single sitting." - Richmond Times Dispatch "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. With this month's English-language translation of his award-winning novel The Thief, he does for Japanese fiction what John Woo did for Chinese filmmaking: bringing the darker side to an American audience." -Daily Beast "The Thief doesn't rely on plot twists or chapter-ending cliffhangers so much as it does a masterful sense of pacing. The Thief is a swift piece of crime noir, surprisingly light on grit but weighted by existential dread. It's simple and utterly compelling - great beach reading for the deeply cynical. If you crossed Michael Connelly and Camus and translated it from Japanese." -Grantland "unique and engrossing" -Mystery People Blog "I was deeply impressed with The Thief . It is fresh."-Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prizewinning author of A Personal Matter "Fascinating. I want to write something like The Thief someday myself."-Natsuo Kirino, bestselling author of Edgar-nominated Out and Grotesque "Nakamura's memorable antihero, at once as believably efficient as Donald Westlake's Parker and as disaffected as a Camus protagonist, will impress genre and literary readers alike."- Publishers Weekly "Surreal." -Sacramento Bee "Page-Turner" pick "Disguised as fast-paced, shock-fueled crime fiction, Thief resonates even more as a treatise on contemporary disconnect and paralyzing isolation.... Mystery/crime aficionados with exacting literary standards, as well as readers familiar with already-established-in-translation Japanese writers Miyuki Miyabe ( Shadow Family ), Natsuo Kirino ( Out , Grotesque ), and Keigo Higashino ( Naoko , The Devotion of Suspect X ), will especially enjoy discovering Nakamura."- Library Journal "Fast-paced, elegantly written, and rife with the symbols of inevitability."- ForeWord "Compulsively readable for its portrait of a dark, crumbling, graffiti-scarred Tokyo-and the desire to understand the mysterious thief."- Booklist "The drily philosophical tone and the noir atmosphere combine perfectly, providing a rapid and enjoyable "read" that is nonetheless cool and distant, provoking the reader to think about (as much as experience) the tale." -International Noir Fiction " The Thief manages to wrap you up in its pages, tightly, before you are quite aware of it."- Mystery Scene "Readers will be enthralled by this story that offers an extremely surprising ending."- Suspense Magazine
