'Kirino's tale is so dark, so gruesome and so depressing, it left this reader reeling.'Sadism and sexuality commingle, reminiscent of Last Tango in Paris, until the characters achieve a final transformation in the unforgettable conclusion.' - Eve Kushner, San Francisco Chronicle.'Grim, gruesome and powerful - but with unexpected flashes of humour - this novel is not just a chilling read but also an intriguing underdog view of Japanese society.' - Peter Guttridge, The Observer.Unfortunately, the wooden phrasing in Stephen Snyder's translation lends a potboiler quality to the novel, and the psychological explanations seem overdrawn.' - Katherine Wolff, The New York Times Book Review

'At its best, Out has the force of a juicy tabloid scandal: we witness the insidious merging of desperation and violence.(.) Out is a melodrama, beautifully observed but always on the verge of detaching from reality.' - Joan Smith, The Independent 'The novel is brilliantly constructed, powered by its own internal logic despite flaws in the plot.(.) Out is a strange novel indeed: slow, relentless, banal and gleefully grisly, to the point that it can rather strain credulity.' - Stephen Poole, The Guardian (.) The story, meanwhile, is really a framework on which she hangs a political commentary about the problems of ordinary women in contemporary Japanese society. 'As the plot rumbles on, the flat, functional prose is occasionally illuminated by a strange lyricism.Warning: The squeamish shouldn't check this Out.' - Lori L. 'What follows, as the women try to outwit the police and a mysterious stranger bent on revenge, is as much a character study of disaffected housewives as a knuckle-clenching thriller.Not quite a consensus, but most impressed by aspects of it Out was made into a film in 2002, directed by Hirayama Hideyuki an American remake, to be directed by Nakata Hideo, is scheduled for 2006ī : elaborate thriller, decent slice-of-life stories.Out won the Japan Mystery Writers' Association Prize in 1998.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Out by Natsuo Kirino