Out: Natsuo Kirino

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Natsuo Kirino ( 桐野 夏生, Kirino Natsuo) (born October 7, 1951, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture) is the pen name of Mariko Hashioka, [1] a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction. [2] Biography [ edit ] Kirino is the middle child of three. [3] She has two brothers, one who is six years older and one who is five years younger. [3] Her father was an architect. [2] Kirino has lived in many different cities, including her current residence, Tokyo. [3] Kirino married in 1975 [2] and had a daughter in 1981. [3] Fleming, Michael (2004-06-29). "New Line thrills to 'Out' with Nakata". Variety . Retrieved 2007-05-22. Kirino (Real World) wows with her latest novel. On an unnamed small island, two sisters grow up, just a year apart in age. Kamikuu, the eldest, is destined to be the island’s next Oracle, following Continue reading » Riaru warudo (Tokyo: Shueisha, 2003); English translation by J. Philip Gabriel as Real World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008)

The novel tells the tales of four women, working the graveyard shift at a Japanese bento factory. All four women live hard lives. Masako, the leader of the four women, feels completely alienated from her estranged husband and teenage son. Kuniko, a plump and rather vain girl, has recently been ditched by her boyfriend after the couple were driven into debt, leaving Kuniko to fend off a loan shark. Yoshie is a single mother and reluctant caretaker of her mother-in-law, who was left partly paralyzed after a stroke. Yayoi is a thirty-four-year-old mother of two small boys who she is forced to leave home alone, where they are abused by their drunken, gambling father, Kenji.Four Japanese women - Masako, Yayoi, Yoshie and Kuniko - work the night shift together at a factory making boxed lunches. Yayoi's husband, Yamamoto, is drunk and violent, and obsessed with an escort girl named Anna, who works at a club run by psychopathic gangster Satake. Yamamoto has also lost all the couple's savings playing baccarat at Satake's club. One night Satake beats Yamamoto up and throws him out. When Yamamoto gets home, his wife strangles him with his own belt. She confides in her friends, and they, led by Masako, agree to take Yamamoto's body, cut it up and dispose of it in garbage bags dispersed around Tokyo. a b Copeland, Rebecca (2004). "Woman Uncovered: Pornography and Power in the Detective Fiction of Kirino Natsuo". Japan Forum. 16 (2): 249–69. doi: 10.1080/0955580042000222673. a b c d e f g h i Lutz, R.C. (2008). "Natsuo Kirino". In Carl Rollyson (ed.). Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction (Reviseded.). Pasadena, CA: Salem Press. Tokyo Island (original title: Tōkyō-jima), trans. Philip Gabriel ( Granta, No.110, 2010 Spring, p.31-50)

Japan's Government Medals of Honor (Japan) for distinguished performances and contributions to society. OUT is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ She is most famous for her 1997 novel, Out, which received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan's top mystery award, and was a finalist (in English translation) for the 2004 Edgar Award. [2] In addition, Kirino received the 1993 Edogawa Rampo Prize for mystery fiction for her debut novel, Kao ni Furikakaru Ame (Rain Falling on My Face), and the 1999 Naoki Prize for her novel Yawarakana hoho (Soft Cheeks). In addition to comparisons with hardboiled crime fiction, Kirino's work has been compared with horror fiction (the gruesome dismemberment scenes in Out, for example) and proletarian literature such as Kanikōsen. [8] So far, four of her novels ( Out, Grotesque, Real World, and The Goddess Chronicle, the last of which was written for the Canongate Myth Series) have been translated into English. [7] A further novel, In is scheduled for publication in 2013.