基本信息出版社：Vintage
页码：388 页
出版日期：2004年09月
ISBN：0099472287
条形码：9780099472285
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语
外文书名：真相大白

内容简介 OUT was awarded the Grand Prix of the Mystery Writers of Japan in 1997-the Asian equivalent of an Edgar.
It is a dynamic example of the work of a new breed of Asian women writers excelling in the smart, hard-nosed, well-written, and realistically plotted mystery novel. Kirino' crime story can stand comparison with the work of other top-notch Western women writers in this genre, like Sarah Paretsky and Ruth Rendell.
The story-though a bare summary makes it seem merely brutal and bloodthirsty, when it is much more than that-focuses on four women who work together in a lunch-box factory in the suburbs of Tokyo. One of them suffers from spouse abuse and, unable to take it any longer, murders her husband and appeals to her co-workers to help her dispose of the corpse. One of these friends---the brain behind the coverup-after cutting up the body in the bathroom of her house, has the other two dump it as garbage. The money from the man's life insurance is then divided among them. But this is only the beginning. The successful, unpremeditated crime and the rewards it brings are the seed of other, premeditated schemes, escalating from one localized use of violence to a rash of similar deeds, with unpredictable outcomes for the women behind them.
As a study in the psychology of domestic repression and the dynamics of violent crime, OUT works on several levels, gripping the reader from its smoldering beginning to the fireburst of its finale.
In hardcover in its original language it sold over 300,000 copies, and a movie version will have its premiere in Tokyo at the end of 2002, with international distribution under discussion. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
作者简介
NATSUO KIRINO was born in Japan in 1951. Her career as a writer began with comics and pulp fiction, but as soon as her serious mystery novels started to appear, they attracted a huge readership. These by now have won her all the top mystery awards in her country, and two have been turned into full-scale movies. OUT is her first to appear in English.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
媒体推荐 Entertainment Weekly, August 15-22, 2003
"A Knuckle-clenching thriller" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Asahi Shimbun
Intricately constructed, like the assembly of a mosaic, stone by stone. Even the minor characters are vivid and memorable. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Stark realism, lit up by flashes of unexpected humor and psychological insight. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Kirkus Review, June 15, 2003
"Crime and Punishment meets A Simple Plan...like no one you've ever read before." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Black Book, Fall 2004
"...a daring account of empowered Japanese women, and just too damn macabre to discount." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

USA Today, August 19, 2003
"Kirino's tale is so dark, so gruesome and so depressing, it left this reader reeling." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Washington Post Book World, August 31, 2003
"OUT offers an intriguing look at the darker sides of Japanese society while smashing stereotypes about Japanese women." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2003
"A masterful and psychologically astute novel." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
Four women who work the night shift in a Tokyo factory that produces boxed lunches find their lives twisted beyond repair in this grimly compelling crime novel, which won Japan's top mystery award, the Grand Prix, for its already heralded author, now making her first appearance in English. Despite the female bonding, this dark, violent novel is more evocative of Gogol or Dostoyevsky than Thelma and Louise. When Yayoi, the youngest and prettiest of the women, strangles her philandering gambler husband with his own belt in an explosion of rage, she turns instinctively for help to her co-worker Masako, an older and wiser woman whose own family life has fallen apart in less dramatic fashion. To help her cut up and get rid of the dead body, Masako recruits Yoshie and Kuniko, two fellow factory workers caught up in other kinds of domestic traps. In Snyder's smoothly unobtrusive translation, all of Kirino's characters are touching and believable. And even when the action stretches to include a slick loan shark from Masako's previous life and a pathetically lost and lonely man of mixed Japanese and Brazilian parentage, the gritty realism of everyday existence in the underbelly of Japan's consumer society comes across with pungent force. FYI: This novel has been made into a Japanese motion picture.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From AudioFile
When a poor working mother in Tokyo 's sprawling suburbs murders her abusive husband, she calls upon the women she works with to help dispose of his body. This tabloid of desperation and gender warfare moves forward with the deliberate inevitability of the Noh theatre. Narrator Bernadette Dunne has the skill to inform the listener not only through accents, but also by tendering emotions in the voice of each character. Her voice conveys every nuance of fear, elation, and even resignation. The women are delineated with such skill that they move before our eyes. Truly a journey into the underbelly of urban life, this novel is not for the faint of heart. B.H.B. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
A suburban Tokyo woman fed up with her loutish husband kills him in a fit of anger, then confesses her crime to a coworker on the night shift at the boxed-lunch factory. The coworker enlists the help of two other women at the factory to dismember and dispose of the body. Readers beware--Kirino's first mystery to be published in English (it was a best-seller in Japan) involves no madcap female bonding. The tenuous friendship between the four women, all with problems of their own even before becoming accessories to murder, begins to unravel almost immediately. Money changes hands. The body parts are discovered. The police begin asking questions, and a very bad man falsely accused of the crime is determined to find out who really deserves the punishment. The gritty neighborhoods, factories, and warehouses of Tokyo provide a perfect backdrop for this bleak tale of women who are victims of circumstance and intent on self-preservation at all costs. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Prize jury, Mystery Writers of Japan
A masterpiece...here is a novel that realistically shows how ordinary people can be drawn into committing brutal crimes. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice." -The New York Times Book Review
"Kirino's tale is so dark, so gruesome and so depressing, it left this reader reeling. No gritty urban American tale of violence can match the horror of OUT." -USA Today
"The scarily omniscient Kirino knows not only everybody's business but everybody's mind-her way with interior monologue is pungent and prismatic..." -The Village Voice
"OUT remains a daring account of empowered Japanese women, and just too damn macabre to discount." -Flaunt
"OUT offers an intriguing look at the darker sides of Japanese society while smashing stereotypes about Japanese women." -Washington Post Book World
"Daring and disturbing, OUT is prepared to push the limits of this world-not only in violence and sex but also in human outlook." -The Los Angeles Times
"OUT probes the more sordid corners of the criminal psyche." -The Houston Chronicle
"A knuckle-clenching thriller." -Entertainment Weekly
"OUT turns the whole subservient geisha image on its head." -JANE
"Kirino, as is the case of the best mystery writers, combines a strong plot with a canny description of contemporary Japanese mores and culture to make this an unforgettable work... this is a novel that will be shared, and discussed, for some time to come." -Bookrerorter.com
"Sensational." -Time Out New York
"In Snyder's smoothly unobtrusive translation, all of Kirino's characters are touching and believable.... the gritty realism of everyday existence in the underbelly of Japan's consumer society comes across with pungent force." -Publishers Weekly
"With volcanic urgency, Kirino's story erupts onto the page with a searing heat, flowing like lava to a remarkable finish... It's rare when a novel is so well rendered, so reaching in scope, and so thematically relevant that is transcends its type and demands a wider reading. OUT does that and more." -Barnes & Noble's Discover New Writers, Fall 2003
"One of the year's most impactful works of mystery." -Borders.com
"OUT descends beneath the genre's foundation to provide a remarkable series of insights into the forces that drive the charnel house of a postindustrial culture." -American Book Review
"...a captivating portrayal of what an individual will do to find a reason for living...." -ForeWord
"OUT is interesting for the way it invites questions of gender's relationship to violence." -Bitch
"[OUT] brings the mystery thriller to new levels of intensity and realism, drawing readers into a nightmare of murder, suspicion, and fear.... [It] has great plot twists, intensity, and an ending that would make Hannibal Lecter smile." -Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Dark, seductive and occasionally brutal, OUT explores the lower classes of Japanese society with a distinctive gallows humor." -Book
"....the most exciting crime novel of the year...the novel is darker, grittier, and more disquieting than nearly anything that's come along in recent years on either side of the Pacific Rim." -Orange
"A gutsy, unflinching foray into the darkest, most dangerous recesses of the human soul. And the book's riveting, hair-raising final scenes, although definitely not for the faint-at-heart, serve as an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom has the potential to set any ordinary individual among us off down a very dark and lonely road." -Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"An entrancing, perverse tale of murder." -The National Post (Toronto)
"Dramatic as the plot is, it's the penetration of Kirino's insight into her characters and their capacity to keep surprising each other that linger longest in this grimly satisfying tale. Crime and Punishment meets A Simple Plan-yet in the end Kirino manages her banal heroines' descent into hell like no one you've ever read before." -Kirkus Reviews
"Kirino doesn't rush the complex plot; she takes time to develop her characters and set up the crisis, with fantasies and realities about to collide." -Toronto Globe & Mail
"One of the most popular authors in Japan-known as 'the reigning queen of crime fiction.'" -International Herald Tribune
"Finally, a masterpiece in this genre... Whereas the lead characters in most crime fiction are outlaws, here is a novel that realistically shows how ordinary people can be drawn into committing brutal crimes." -Prize jury, Mystery Writers of Japan
"OUT will remain in the memory of readers as The pick of the crop of Japanese mysteries. There is terrific energy in it, from start to finish." Mainichi Shimbun
"There are few authors who are willing to probe deep into the innards of modern society and write about what they find there. This novel is proof that Ms. Kirino is one of them." Hokkaido Shimbun
"Intricately constructed, like the assembly of a mosaic, stone by stone. Even the minor charactersa loan shark, a Brazilian Japaneseare vivid and memorable." Asahi Shimbun
"Stark realism, lit up by flashes of unexpected humor and psychological insight." Nihon Keizai Shimbun
"Ingenious." Shukan Asahi
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.