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Loading... The Devil of Nanking (original 2004; edition 2007)by Mo Hayder
Work InformationTokyo by Mo Hayder (2004)
  
None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) Heidimag | Jan 18, 2024 |   ) blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 | She tracks down the husband of the woman that the Japanese officer cut the baby out of, now an old man, and she makes a deal with him: get the secret of an old mafioso's longevity, and he will give her the film, which he has kept safely locked away, all these years. The story bounces back and forth, from Grey's dangerous life as a hostess in a club in Tokyo, to Chongming's timeline during the siege of Nanking. So well told, and heartbreaking. ( ) burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 | This is probably the single most disturbing read I have ever encountered. I don't know how to Raye this at the moment, so I'll have to come back to it. I have lots of thoughts. ( ) Jonez | Sep 23, 2022 | ) HoboMonk | Aug 9, 2022 |
 From its start in 1937, as the Japanese overrun the Chinese port of Nanking and massacre hundreds of thousands, to its narrative core in 1990, as a disturbed young British woman who calls herself Grey searches for the hidden truths that made her the mentally fragile person she is, Hayder's third book (after 2002's The Treatment) is a thriller of rare art and gripping excitement. Hayder, one of the rising stars of British crime fiction, teaches at a university in Bath and has worked as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub. Both experiences add to her book's unusually rich atmosphere. Grey, who lives on the fringes of the academic world, tries to find out in Tokyo whether a piece of 16mm film taken during the Nanking atrocities actually exists—and whether it will ease her pain. When an elderly Chinese professor, a survivor of Nanking, at first refuses to help her, she drifts into a well-paying job as a night club hostess. Eventually, the story becomes a beautifully paced, three-way duel among an aged Japanese gangster who wants to live forever; the Chinese professor, with secrets too horrible to hide any longer; and Grey, a courageous young woman unlike any other heroine you're likely to find in a thriller. Belongs to Publisher SeriesGoldmann (46320)
Fiction.
Literature.
Mystery.
Thriller.
HTML: With the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking, takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's most brutal events: the Nanking Massacre. A young Englishwoman obsessed with an indecipherable past, Grey comes to Tokyo seeking a lost piece of film footage of the notorious 1937 Nanking Massacre, footage some say never existed. Only one man can help Grey. A survivor of the massacre, he is now a visiting professor at a university in Tokyo. But he will have nothing to do with her. So Grey accepts a job in an upmarket nightspot, where a certain gangster may be the key to gaining the professor's trust. An old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage, the gangster is rumored to rely on a mysterious elixir for his continued health. Taut, gritty, sexy, and harrowing, The Devil of Nanking is an incomparable literary thriller set in one of the world's most fascinating cities-Tokyo-from an internationally best-selling author. .No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.77)
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