- Paperback: 203 pages
- Publisher: Vertical; First American Edition edition (Sep 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1932234039
- ISBN-13: 978-1932234039
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,481,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The author, one of Japan’s best scriptwriters, tells a story about what he knows best. This is an interesting glimpse into Japanese pop culture. His storyline is so poignant, so emotional, it will have you hoping every character will come out ahead." -- Heartland Reviews
"Yamada has gained accolades from substantial writers such as David Mitchell and Bret Easton Ellis, but this novel is more a gentle entertainment than a serious psychic disturbance." - James Urquhart, Daily Telegraph
"(A) story that pens in spare strokes a portrait of urban alienation. (...) Less subtle, unfortunately, are the vagaries of the translation into American English. (...) What survives, however, is a memorably uncanny tapestry, and a powerful atmosphere, of heat and rain and sorrow." - Steven Poole, The Guardian
"Strangers is written with a clarity I have come to recognise as Japanese." - Kate Kellaway, The Observer
"Strangers is written with a tone that reveals great emotional discernment." - Peter Burnett, Scotland on Sunday
"What might have been a simple ghost story evolves into a psychologically acute portrait of a man unused to being cared for. (...) All of this manages to survive a poor translation that renders a delicate tale in clunking prose" - Patrick Ness, Sunday Telegraph
"Taichi Yamada's Strangers is a very efficient and chilling up-dating, to the 1980s (when it was written in Japanese), of a Noh-play-type story: of ghostly spirits filtering through into the living world, and of how the spirit must be put to rest by the living." - Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Telegraph
"As an exploration of the power of delusion, Strangers is not without interest. As a ghost story, however, it is not very frightening." - William Skidelsky, Times Literary Supplement
"Yamada has gained accolades from substantial writers such as David Mitchell and Bret Easton Ellis, but this novel is more a gentle entertainment than a serious psychic disturbance." - James Urquhart, Daily Telegraph
"(A) story that pens in spare strokes a portrait of urban alienation. (...) Less subtle, unfortunately, are the vagaries of the translation into American English. (...) What survives, however, is a memorably uncanny tapestry, and a powerful atmosphere, of heat and rain and sorrow." - Steven Poole, The Guardian
"Strangers is written with a clarity I have come to recognise as Japanese." - Kate Kellaway, The Observer
"Strangers is written with a tone that reveals great emotional discernment." - Peter Burnett, Scotland on Sunday
"What might have been a simple ghost story evolves into a psychologically acute portrait of a man unused to being cared for. (...) All of this manages to survive a poor translation that renders a delicate tale in clunking prose" - Patrick Ness, Sunday Telegraph
"Taichi Yamada's Strangers is a very efficient and chilling up-dating, to the 1980s (when it was written in Japanese), of a Noh-play-type story: of ghostly spirits filtering through into the living world, and of how the spirit must be put to rest by the living." - Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Telegraph
"As an exploration of the power of delusion, Strangers is not without interest. As a ghost story, however, it is not very frightening." - William Skidelsky, Times Literary Supplement
Book Description
Set in the great human maelstrom of Tokyo, Strangers is a thinking man's ghost story. When Harada, a jaded TV scriptwriter, runs into his long-dead parents one night, he enters the womb of a city whose living inhabitants have perhaps lost their souls. Can Harada save his?
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story,
By Sir John Thomas, OBE (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Strangers (Paperback)
An excellent read - unexpected twists and quite moving. More than just a ghost story, this book packs an emotional punch. That's not to say that it isn't a cracker of a spooky tale. Had me leaping out of my slippers and crying into my Bovril at the same time. Though I must say that I agree with the other fellow about the translation (much better in the original Japanese).
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great story/poor translation,
By
This review is from: Strangers (Paperback)
I just finished "Strangers" by Taichi Yamada. The narration is a bit sloppy and some of the translation seems stilted, with convoluted syntax, although that may reflect the original Japanese writing for all I know. It doesn't seem well-written especially considering the first person of the first-person narrative writes for Japanese television. But the theme dominated and was both moving and curious. The story captures, for me, the psychological security from being my parents' child and the joys of reunion. The last sentence sums up why I like the book: gratitude for the time my parents gave me.
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE DISCARNATES,
This review is from: Strangers (Paperback)
Okay - gotta admit I haven't read the book yet (just ordered it on Amazon) but the film is absolutely amazing!It's called "the Discarnates" or "Summer Among the Zombies" and it was made in 1988 by Nobuhiko Obayashi. I saw it once ten years ago and it's stuck in my mind ever since. Finally I got it on DVD and I watched it again last night and it's just as beautiful as I remember! Highly recommended - hope the novel is just as good.
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