From the Fatherland with Love | Ryu Murakami

From the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of 'rebels' in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of 'Operation From the Fatherland, with Love'. But the terrorist Ishihara and his band of renegade youths - once dedicated to upsetting the Japanese government-turn their deadly attention to the North Korean threat. They will not allow Fukuoka to fall without a fight.

Epic in scale, From the Fatherland, with Love is laced throughout with Murakami's characteristically savage violence. It's both a satisfying thriller and a completely mad, over-the-top novel like few others.

About the Author

Ryu Murakami was born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture, Ryu Murakami is the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for his first book, a novel about a group of young people drowned in sex and drugs, he has gone on to explore with cinematic intensity the themes of violence and technology in contemporary Japanese society. His novels include Piercing, Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, Audition, In the Miso Soup and From the Fatherland, with Love. Murakami is also a screenwriter and a director; his films include Tokyo Decadence, Audition and Because of You. 

About the Translator

Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated fiction by more than a dozen early modern and contemporary Japanese writers, ranging from such early literary giants as Izumi Kyoka and Okamoto Kido to contemporary bestsellers Ryu Murakami and Miyabe Miyuki, and her translations have also appeared in Granta, Freeman’s, Words Without Borders, and a number of anthologies. Her translation of Sayaka Murata’s Akutagawa prizewinning novel Convenience Store Woman was awarded the 2020-2021 Lindsey and Masao Miyoshi Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 Indies Choice and Best Translated Book Awards. Her translations of Kyoko Nakajima’s Naoki prizewinning The Little House was published in February 2019, and Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings in 2020.