The Thief is a terrific, existential thriller from Japanese novelist Fuminori Nakamura. It looked at first to be a slight novel about pickpockets in Tokyo, but is quickly involving - pulling you along into the dark spiral of the night. I found I couldn't put it down at night, and finished it in the early morning.
Nishimura is a drifter in the city, a seasoned pickpocket slipping wallets out of people's jackets swiftly and cooly - although young, he is an expert. He spends his time leisurely wandering the streets in this way, sizing up potential marks, not even needing the money. He once worked with an older thief, Ishikawa, and their teamwork when pickpocketing together was so fluid they could pinch the wallet, remove the money and return it in one swift motion - sometimes even re-buttoning your jacket.
One day Ishikawa asks for help with one final job before he 'retires' and leaves town. It is a home robbery arranged through a ruthless gang boss Ishikawa is associated with, who judges their work and is happy when things go off without a hitch. From then on Nishimura is followed and watched daily before being approached again to complete three difficult pickpocket tasks for the gang boss.
A side story has him notice a young boy and his mother while they are poorly shoplifting groceries, and he befriends the boy. They are his only link to normal society - a selfish, burned out prostitute and her neglected ten year-old son his only 'friends' in a life of aimless wandering without any goals besides the weakening entertainment of looking for another victim.
The gang boss knows this and makes him an offer he can't refuse - complete the jobs or the mother, the son, or Nishimura himself will be killed.
The details of the thefts are fascinating and the loner character of Nishimura is so well written, the novel pulled me right in. The plot twists as Nishimura pulls off thefts, each more difficult than the last, as he falls deeper into the darkness. It also has an existential edge - delving into the flip side of society, illustrating the emptiness and futility. People are caught up in traps, sometimes of their own choosing, leading then into a unending circle of Hell. It's written in the sparse first person style of classic hard-boiled detective stories that is compelling, a real page-turner. Where many stories in this genre wrap-up neatly, The Thief continues to spiral into an unforgettable finale.
In 2009, Nakamura won the Oe Kenzaburo Prize for The Thief as best novel of the year.
Terrific. I highly recommend it.
2012 / Tradeback / 211 pages
Comentários