Junko Takekawa is the Senior Arts Programme Officer at The Japan Foundation in London. One of
five essential Japanese crime novels she tagged for the Waterstones blog:
Six Four - Hideo Yokoyama
I am a devoted reader of his work and I have read almost every single book by him. Unlike other best-selling novelists, he is far from prolific but every piece of work is like a gem. I am so thrilled to know that one of his works has been translated into English so he can gain the readership outside Japan that he deserves. Some may label his books “macho” as quite often the stories are set in male society in Japan. Six Four is a human story of the Japanese police force, a recurrent theme of his books. Although there is a crime there, it is not, strictly speaking, a crime novel in my opinion, but a novel about human behavior and conflict between individuals in a rigid and impersonal organisation. You may be able to see your mirror image in this book.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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