Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales

<p><b>"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." </b><b>€•Alan Cheuse, <i>NPR</i></b> </p><p>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 <i>The Housekeeper and the Professor.</i></p><p> 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 surgeon's 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.</p><p>Yoko Ogawa's <i>Revenge</i> is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page. </p><p>An NPR Best Book of 2013</p>