Synopses & Reviews
Sinister forces collide — and unite a host of desperate characters — in this eerie cycle of interwoven tales from Yoko Ogawa, the critically acclaimed author of
The Housekeeper and the Professor. An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeons neighbor — who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders — their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful web.
Yoko Ogawa's Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page.
Review
“It's not just Murakami but also the shadow of Borges that hovers over this mesmerizing book...[and] one may detect a slight bow to the American macabre of E.A. Poe. Ogawa stands on the shoulders of giants, as another saying goes. But this collection may linger in your mind — it does in mine — as a delicious, perplexing, absorbing and somehow singular experience.” Alan Cheuse, NPR
Review
"A secret garden of dark, glorious flowers: silky, heartbreakingly beautiful...and poison to their roots.” Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns
Review
“Yoko Ogawa is an absolute master of the Gothic at its most beautiful and dangerous, and Revenge is a collection that deepens and darkens with every story you read.” Peter Straub
Review
“Ogawa crafts 11 interlocking short stories with eloquent prose that belies the nature of the tales she spins....With dark calm and disquieting imagery, the author leads readers on a journey of the macabre in a progression of tales that resound long after the last page is turned....Ogawa's writing is simple and effective, and her technique for merging the tales demonstrates her mastery of the written word....The author paints each tale exquisitely.” Kirkus
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About the Author
Yoko Ogawa's fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, and Harpers Magazine. Since 1988, she has produced more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, which have been published in several countries. Her novel Hotel Iris was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2010.
Kelsey Ford on PowellsBooks.Blog
I love short story collections because of how much they manage to do with so little. They can dilate, expand, shatter, constellate. Within any given collection, you can move from the moon to a diner after midnight to that liminal minute right when you wake up but are still knee-deep in a dream..
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